Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
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Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#2Dangerous how? Toxic to humans? At risk of unsettling sand around a rover/human? Is the question asking if they are something that would consciously attack someone?
Everything is dangerous. The key to mitigating that danger is planning ahead for it. A leaf seems harmless, but infection from a cut the leaf gave you could kill you. A marshmallow is fluffy and soft, but if you swallow it without chewing, it could expand and suffocate you.
Asking if something is dangerous is ridiculous. Asking what it is and how to safely handle it is not. The article does a much better job portraying this than the headline does.
Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#3Dangerous how? Toxic to humans? At risk of unsettling sand around a rover/human? Is the question asking if they are something that would consciously attack someone? Everything is dangerous. The key to mitigating that danger is planning ahead for it. A leaf seems harmless, but infection from a cut the leaf gave you could kill you. A marshmallow is fluffy and soft, but if you swallow it without chewing, it could expand…
Seems like they're just trying to get some more clicks.
Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#4Dangerous how? Toxic to humans? At risk of unsettling sand around a rover/human? Is the question asking if they are something that would consciously attack someone? Everything is dangerous. The key to mitigating that danger is planning ahead for it. A leaf seems harmless, but infection from a cut the leaf gave you could kill you. A marshmallow is fluffy and soft, but if you swallow it without chewing, it could expand…
Betteridge's Law of Headlines is an adage that states, "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'".
Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#5Without a scale those images are largely useless.
Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#6[deleted]
Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#7> they might be colonies of photosynthetic Martian microorganisms, warmed from the sun, now sunbathing in plain view.
That's incredible. Is that really possible? I wonder why the rover doesn't check them out? It seems weird it's digging through soil looking for chemicals possibly related to life when there's potential life out in plain view.
NASA has some very strange priorities.
Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#8Dangerous how? Toxic to humans? At risk of unsettling sand around a rover/human? Is the question asking if they are something that would consciously attack someone? Everything is dangerous. The key to mitigating that danger is planning ahead for it. A leaf seems harmless, but infection from a cut the leaf gave you could kill you. A marshmallow is fluffy and soft, but if you swallow it without chewing, it could expand…
Betteridge's Law of Headlines is an adage that states, "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines
We know.
https://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+be...
It's been mentioned 19 times already in the last month according to Google.
Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#9> they might be colonies of photosynthetic Martian microorganisms, warmed from the sun, now sunbathing in plain view. That's incredible. Is that really possible? I wonder why the rover doesn't check them out? It seems weird it's digging through soil looking for chemicals possibly related to life when there's potential life out in plain view. NASA has some very strange priorities.
When planning a landing site for each rover mission, NASA considers a variety of factors and makes a best-guess as to the fruitfulness of each site from a scientific perspective.
Clearly a team of brilliant scientists has not failed to consider the possibility of exploring these strange spidery features, but they have decided against it for the time being.
It doesn't really make sense to assess their "strange priorities" as an outsider looking in with very limited knowledge as to how their decision making process actually works.
Re: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
#10> they might be colonies of photosynthetic Martian microorganisms, warmed from the sun, now sunbathing in plain view. That's incredible. Is that really possible? I wonder why the rover doesn't check them out? It seems weird it's digging through soil looking for chemicals possibly related to life when there's potential life out in plain view. NASA has some very strange priorities.
The guess is random geyser's powered by CO2 plumes, so probably dangerous for the rover to check out directly. Or, maybe they will check it out during the time of the year it's cold. Not sure how far away the rover is from this, either.