Is NASA about to announce the discovery of extraterrestrial

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NASA is bringing together a geologist, an oceanographer, a biologist, and an ecologist for a press conference on Thursday to talk about an astrobiology discovery that "will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." Yeah, this could be major.

Blogger Jason Kottke did some inspired sleuthing regarding what Thursday's press conference might be about. He discovered the expertises of the various people involved include the interaction of geology and life on alien planets (specifically Mars), photosynthesis using arsenic, Saturn's moon Titan as an early Earth environment, and the chemistry of life, including in places without carbon, water, or oxygen.

Taking that all together and combined with the current blitz of news from NASA's Cassini probe around Saturn, Kottke guesses the announcement might have something to do with the discovery of arsenic on Titan and, quite possibly, some primitive bacterial form of life using it for photosynthesis.

Considering NASA's claim that this will impact our search for alien life, I'd have to figure this has something to do with expanding the definition of "life as we know it", suggesting more elements than we previously thought possible can be used as the raw materials for life. All this, of course, is just speculation - we'll be listening in to the press conference on Thursday and have the news for you as it breaks.

http://io9.com/5702433/is-nasa-about-to ... trial-life

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What would this mean to you if we actually have found some form of life?

"Considering NASA's claim that this will impact our search for alien life, I'd have to figure this has something to do with expanding the definition of "life as we know it", suggesting more elements than we previously thought possible can be used as the raw materials for life."

Which if true would be a pile more useful and interesting than just finding an asteroid with fossil trilobites or bluegreen algae on Ganymede.

I'm not sure. My guess is that the discovery they're about to release probably has more to do with Kepler findings of other Earth-like planets. It would be interesting if they found life on Titan though. Titan was always one of the bodies in the solar system most speculated to have life on it, other than Mars.

that's why i opened this topic with a slightly different angle on "life as we know it" yesterday...

http://www.wrongplanet.net/posts144654-highlight.html

it's okay. no sorry needed!

I wouldn't find it too hard to believe that there was a kind of bacteria that existed on other planets. What would really affect my universe is if they discovered intelligent life.

With the use of satellite astronomical equipment interstellar equipment has improved tremendously and there is indication from Wikileaks that a rather cloudy planet has been discovered and there are hints of humanlike creatures there with wings. And in the same solar system a planet not unlike Venus has been discovered where living humanlike creatures are being tortured. It's only a rumor, of course.

There is no reason whatsoever to think that there is no intelligent life out there. You would need to be a religious type and assume that we are god's only creation, or something like that. The problem is finding them and it could pretty much be that the closest planet with intelligent life is so far apart that its light has not even reached us yet...

Hours before their special news conference today, the cat is out of the bag: NASA has discovered a completely new life form that doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living in planet Earth. This changes everything.

At their conference today, NASA scientist Felisa Wolfe Simon will announce that they have found a bacteria whose DNA is completely alien to what we know today. Instead of using phosphorus, the bacteria uses arsenic. All life on Earth is made of six components: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Every being, from the smallest amoeba to the largest whale, share the same life stream. Our DNA blocks are all the same.

But not this one. This one is completely different. Discovered in the poisonous Mono Lake, California, this bacteria is made of arsenic, something that was thought to be completely impossible. While she and other scientists theorized that this could be possible, this is the first discovery. The implications of this discovery are enormous to our understanding of life itself and the possibility of finding beings in other planets that don't have to be like planet Earth.

No details have been disclosed about the origin or nature of this new life form. We will know more today at 2pm EST but, while this life hasn't been found in another planet, this discovery does indeed change everything we know about biology. I don't know about you, but I've not been so excited about a bacteria since my STD tests came back clean. [NOS—In Dutch]

Mono Lake photography by Sathish J — Creative Commons

Lol, I was just about to post on this - heard Felisa on the radio. This is definitely profound, makes me wonder if we may be within a decade of identifying microbes on other planets.