NASA to speak about possible evidence of extraterrestrial life...

[Elfenlied]

This isn't truly related to Avatar (the film) but at the same time I feel it is related to the possibility of extraterrestrial life as a whole.

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.
The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov.  

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html

It's a small step, to a larger understanding of the universe as we know it.
(If this should be posted elsewhere please let me know and I'll move it.)

[ToktorGrace]

Recently a professor at my university discovered a possibly inhabitable planet and gave a talk called "The Search For Other Earths" or something - I wish I could have gone but I had a class at the same time as the talk

Really cool stuff - I'll definitely check out the link.

Info on Prof. Greg Laughlin: http://news.ucsc.edu/2010/10/halliday-lecture.html

[I feel like this could go into the Science section]

[Eyawng te Klltepayu]

I hear this is about the possibility of organisms that use arsenic in the same way that we use phosphorus.

[Swoka Ikran]

Sounds interesting...hopefully a recording will be on NASA's site tomorrow night - I'll be in gym class at 2pm.

[I feel like this could go into the Science section]

Mllte.

[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

holy c*** if this "super-earth" is possible to live on, we just might save our selves feom the destruction of our earth. i am so fing happy!

[Eana Tanhì]

i've heard about it, but they didn't say anything on Croatian television, and it's only broadcasting on NASA tv and i don't think that anyone in Croatia have Nasa tv But as I know, the conference is still holding. I'm sure we'll hear all about it when it's over... can't wait

[omängum fra'uti]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/science/03arsenic.html?src=me

It's not about anything specifically extra-terrestrial.  The discovery is entirely earth bound.  But what it is about is a form of life on earth which lives outside the bounds of what was generally accepted as the required biochemistry for life.

The reason this is exciting for the search for life outside our planet, is that it means that our assumptions on life are not hard and fast rules, and there is the possibility of life using different chemistry than our own, as you might find on a planet with different elemental compositions.

[ToktorGrace]

This reminds me of recent examination of Titan, where scientists suspect alien life utilizing natural gases, ect in different ways than Terran creatures due.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7805069/Titan-Nasa-scientists-discover-evidence-that-alien-life-exists-on-Saturns-moon.html

I love being in the company of nerds :3

[omängum fra'uti]

Indeed.  Before this discovery, there were many theories that life could work using different chemistry than our own, but they were just that; theories.  That's what makes this so big, it is the first observable life using different chemistry.

[Swoka Ikran]

I hear this is about the possibility of organisms that use arsenic in the same way that we use phosphorus.

I think so...a story about it ran on the 5pm news. I was asleep and woke up when I heard 'life' and 'arsenic'

The local station's post on it: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/technology&id=7820051

[Kerame Pxel Nume]

A lot of people seemingly don't grasp the gravity this discovery has. So long only SciFi writers and some scientists seriously speculated about biochemistry based on a whole different set of elements than (majority) of earth's life. Of course everybody in the scientific community agrees, that alien life of course will be of different chemistry, simply for the fact that even earth's life developed so many chemical pathways that it would be foolish to think otherwise. But so far everybody assumed that, once a set of chemical pathways has been outlined it would be impossible to overcome these.

What this discovery showed is not only the possibilty to base life on different elements, but also that life can envolve in a way that it completely changes an organisms biochemistry over the generations. That means that we've not only broaden our understanding of biochemistry and evolutional processes, but also take into account that this makes the existance of extratterrestrial life even more probable.

[Human No More]

Exactly
This just increased the number of planets which could support life by an order of magnitude

[Ean Hufwetulyu]

Mllte