NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

[Overburn]

It's not actually that amazing. Look at the periodic table.
* Selenium is occasionally substituted for Sulfur in amino acids.
* Iirc, those thermophiles someone else referred to commonly use Sulfur where we'd expect Oxygen.
* They found arsenic can potentially be substituted for phosphorous.
Hurr de durr, things with similar properties can be substituted, within a certain tolerance.

Regardless of this finding, the fact remains that our choice of elements is by far the most probable, at least for our galaxy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_elements

I think the fact that it's been found is the big deal. It's been theorized, but this is the actual proof of it. It's probably getting more hype than it needs to from people reading "NASA discovers new life" and thinking that means we're going to mars next week to high-five green dudes, but it's still an interesting step forward.

[Osede]

To me, the disappointment from public are just probably the misunderstanding on the mission/method of how NASA or any space agencies to seek any astro life in any planet. Because when coming look for outer space life, they will first looking into whether the fundamental elements are existing in the planet or not. In my last conference, they have been more focusing on the existence of carbon.

But I can feel why people so hype until the media conference release, then go down so quickly

[Max™]

"If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven't seen yet?"

Well, I figured it would be an oxygen atmosphere, or microbial fossils, but I suppose broadening our expectations of what life will do beyond the standard Earth framework is good.

[Osede]

Isn't this less astrobiology and more regular biology?

The news actually has equally weight on both. Because currently the way they determine whether there is the possibility of existence of any life form at the particular planet are based on the previous assumption. But right now, they have to rework all the assumption, and there is an additional perspective that they had to look into, especially for one of the objective of Mars mission right now.

[Callisto]

The news actually has equally weight on both. Because currently the way they determine whether there is the possibility of existence of any life form at the particular planet are based on the previous assumption. But right now, they have to rework all the assumption, and there is an additional perspective that they had to look into, especially for one of the objective of Mars mission right now.

This, if they've in some way been using the presence of phosphorous as an indicator of whether or not a planet can sustain life and ignoring the potential of places comprised of arsenic instead it probably will have a decent impact on the parameters of a search for ET life.

[Silenka]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/lo...ic-and-aliens/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/no...-about-aliens/

The blogging scientists are very skeptical.

[oldoldman]

I appreciate the importance but this certainly isn't an astrobiological discovery. It's a biological study with implications on astrobiology, misleading conference was misleading.

[Doombard]

One step closer to a real life cybertron

[Kaylia]

This, if they've in some way been using the presence of phosphorous as an indicator of whether or not a planet can sustain life and ignoring the potential of places comprised of arsenic instead it probably will have a decent impact on the parameters of a search for ET life.

The only thing we can search is the atmosphere, and finding trace of arsenic in it...well, good fucking luck. If we are looking on Mars or jupiter's moon, sure, it might change the parameter very slightly , for for anything outside the solar system, it change nothing (except increasing the odd of finding life by a small amount).

[Max™]

Uh, the JWST should be able to detect the atmospheric composition of a planet as it transits in front of the star it orbits by measuring the shift in the stars spectrum.

[Shnaklaha]

this blows, i'm going to be in bed for work when they announce this...i hate working at 4 am...Bacterial life or not, this is historic if its true.

[BerenTebogo]

lol

[Callisto]

. . .

[Max™]

I am impressed, one retard to another, you're awesome dude.

[Scritch]

I appreciate the importance but this certainly isn't an astrobiological discovery. It's a biological study with implications on astrobiology, misleading conference was misleading.

People who say things like this don't actually know what Astrobiology is. Astrobiology: The study of life on Earth and beyond; emphasizes research into questions on the origin of life, the conditions under which life can survive, and the search for life beyond Earth.

This discovery has implications for all three subjects.

[orson]

He got a license to post and has to use it. Unfortunately he's only allowed to read thread titles.

[Kaylia]

Uh, the JWST should be able to detect the atmospheric composition of a planet as it transits in front of the star it orbits by measuring the shift in the stars spectrum.

We have enough resolution to detect the main component of an atmosphere (co2, o2, water..etc) of nearby extra solar planets. We can't detect something like phosphore or arsenic.

[Silenka]

We have enough resolution to detect the main component of an atmosphere (co2, o2, water..etc) of a nearby extra solor planets. We can't detect something like phosphore or arsenic

Bleh, it's not up on the website yet but there was an article in Discover (yeah I know, sorry it's the only thing I read science-wise) this November musing about whether life originated in space, and saying this is a possibility because they found all sorts of chemical compounds just recently that they did not expect to find out in space. I can't remember which ones they were, wish I had the magazine with me.

Inb4 we were seeded by aliens.

[Jefe]

So there are, what, about 10^20 stars like the sun? It is thought that about 10% of stars have planetary sys. Now if 1 in 10,000 of these planets is the right blah blah blah like earth, then the life experiment will have been repeated 10^15 times. It doesn't seem like we're alone, folks.

[Kaylia]

Bleh, it's not up on the website yet but there was an article in Discover (yeah I know, sorry it's the only thing I read science-wise) this November musing about whether life originated in space, and saying this is a possibility because they found all sorts of chemical compounds just recently that they did not expect to find out in space. I can't remember which ones they were, wish I had the magazine with me.

Inb4 we were seeded by aliens.

We know there is simple organics compound in space (H-C-N-O molecules) for a while. What they found not too long ago was molecules slightly more complex than what we expected. It doesn't change much to the current models.

So there are, what, about 10^20 stars like the sun? It is thought that about 10% of stars have planetary sys. Now if 1 in 10,000 of these planets is the right blah blah blah like earth, then the life experiment will have been repeated 10^15 times. It doesn't seem like we're alone, folks.

What if the odds of combining random molecules together to form life is 10^-15


I don't disagree, and we have many reason to think that the probability for life to appears is high, but right now, we still have no number for it.