By Phil Plait
Mars Curiosity rover. Alien sold separately.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems (rover) & Shutterstock (alien)
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems (rover) & Shutterstock (alien)
OK, everyone, can we all take a sec and just breathe?
I’m getting emails, and seeing Facebook updates, blog posts, and tweets—and I bet if I look hard enough, even smoke signals—about scientists saying they’ve found something “for the history books” on Mars. This was first reported by NPR in an interesting but nearly meatless article. All we know is that the scientists who are running an instrument on the Curiosity rover called SAM—for Sample Analysis on Mars, an apparatus that can analyze material scooped up from the surface—are very excited about some preliminary results.
Very excited. John Grotzinger, the Project Scientist for Curiosity, said in an interview, "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good."
And that’s all we know. We don’t know what they found. We don’t even know what sort of thing they’ve found: geologic, biologic, chemical, atmospheric, or what. We do know that Dr. Grotzinger is excited, but wants to make sure the results are valid before announcing them.
I’m seeing tons of speculation, though, and I will happily be the party pooper: don’t let your imagination run away from you. If you immediately jump to the conclusion that this is really something amazing, then when you find out what it's actually about, as exciting as it may be, it may not live up to what you think.
Read more at - http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/21/mars_rover_curiosity_makes_earthshaking_find_no_one_is_talking_but_everyone.html
Read more at - http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/21/mars_rover_curiosity_makes_earthshaking_find_no_one_is_talking_but_everyone.html
