Life in Outer Space

[coinín]

NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life



How exciting!

[Graham]

Staggering discovery, if upheld by peer review. Which is heavily underway (from the linked article):

Dr. Richard Hoover is a highly respected scientist and astrobiologist with a prestigious record of accomplishment at NASA. Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis. Our intention is to publish the commentaries, both pro and con, alongside Dr. Hoover's paper. In this way, the paper will have received a thorough vetting, and all points of view can be presented. No other paper in the history of science has undergone such a thorough analysis, and no other scientific journal in the history of science has made such a profoundly important paper available to the scientific community, for comment, before it is published. We believe the best way to advance science, is to promote debate and discussion.

Going to have a further dig around the web to find out more.

Graham

[Graham]

A biog for Dr Hoover:

http://spie.org/x17397.xml

Richard B. Hoover is Astrobiology Group Leader at the NASA/MSFC/NSSTC in Huntsville, Alabama where he conducts research on microbial extremophiles, microfossils, and chemical biomarkers in Precambrian rocks and carbonaceous meteorites. He holds 11 U. S. Patents and was 1992 NASA Inventor of the Year. He served on Editorial Boards of several scientific Journals and the Boards of Directors of SPIE, the American Association of Engineering Societies, and the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. He is author/editor of 33 Volumes and 250 papers on Astrobiology, Extremophiles, Diatoms, Solar Physics, X-ray/EUV Optics and meteorites. He co-directed the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Astrobiology in Crete and his book "Perspectives in Astrobiology" appeared in June, 2005.

Graham

[Graham]

The paper itself is very readable:

http://journalofcosmology.com/Life100.html

Graham

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by coinín

NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life



How exciting!

Just to clarify, the image you've selected to post is of a terrestrial organism that was included in the paper for comparison, is it not?

[Graham]

You're right, vivaldi, that's going to be embarrassing for the many websites currently using that image!

However, the image two photos above that one in the paper is very impressive, as is the one of the suggested mat of fossilised bacteria.

Credit due in this instance to Fox News who have two images side-by-side and correctly label which is terestrial and which is from a meteorite:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...ife-meteorite/

Graham

[ardeegee]

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2...ver_bacter.php

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...te/#more-29102

http://radarmeteorites.wordpress.com...ci-meteorites/

[LCF]

They are paving the way for the alien space ships hidden in Area 51.

[Graham]

Thanks Ardegee, that third link contains the most robust debunking so far:

The claim is made in the paper that the filaments pre-date the meteorite’s fall to Earth because they contain no detectable nitrogen. This starts with the assumption that the filaments are fossils, then uses the non-detection of nitrogen to “prove” that they are fossils. This is a circular argument. The fact is that no nitrogen was detected, and so nothing of importance can be drawn from that non-measurement. …which doesn’t matter anyway, because these filaments are sulfates. Not fossils.

It's going to be interesting to see if that massive peer review actually emerges...

Graham

[vivaldirules]

I remember all too well Dick Zare's (a respected Stanford prof who I respect) paper a decade or more ago showing an image of a filament in a Mars meteorite that was awfully appealing to nonprofessionals as resembling a life form. So I wouldn't make any bets just yet.

[thrawn_aj]

Well, I for one welcome our new wormy overlords.
[Kudos to OP for posting the story - fascinating stuff! ]

[JeremyR]

NASA is apparently getting desperate. First that non-Carbon based life thing which was torn to pieces, now this.

[coinín]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Just to clarify, the image you've selected to post is of a terrestrial organism that was included in the paper for comparison, is it not?

Yes, this is true. However, it just didn't seem as exciting a post without the visual...

[John Carroll]

I'm really hoping we find more to work with in order to start getting out there. A real space race would be nice.

[LCF]

I don't know. It might turn pretty bad for us (all). I don't think the Earth is ready to meet another, possibly much more advanced civilization.