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NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

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Re: NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

#31

Post by redthrowaway »

motters wrote: post #18

Finding fossil microorganisms and observing that they look very similar to those found on Earth would be an indication to me that the rock may not be a meteorite after all, or that it may be a meteorite from Earth (i.e. blasted out into space by an impact, then fallen back to Earth some time later).

I'd imagine those would be very easy things to check. Per the article, the meteorite was identified as being an exceedingly rare (9 on earth. Total.) CI1 carbonaceous chondrite.

I suspect the claims will likely be debunked, but not for the reasons you gave.

Re: NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

#32

Post by flipper »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #6

this is bad. If we're the only life in neighborhood it is evidence that life is rare and we might already be past the great filter. If life is relatively common it makes the fact that the sky is silent fucking terrifying.

What do you think about the Anthropic Principle? Not only in the sense that the physics of the Universe is just right for complex life to exist, but also in the sense that if aliens 'got there first' we would never have been allowed to evolve to our current state? We don't observe alien civilizations because if they existed we wouldn't!

Life on Earth took almost 3 billion years to go from single-celled organisms to multi-cellular ones. 3 billion years is almost as long as the life of the Universe (~13.7 billion years). There's one data point that suggests that there was a big filter in our past.

Re: NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

#33

Post by NinetyNine »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #29

I'm not impressed. The evidence backing the Martian microbe claims for meteorite ALH 84001 were far, far more robust than these seem to be and yet at the end of the day succumbed to the onslaught of criticism. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Claiming that you've found life inside a rock that has sat in a stew of micro-organisms (the Earth) for thousands of years is one thing, claiming that such l…

I searched but I cannot find any scientific criticism of ALH84001. Can you bring to light what you're referring to?

Re: NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

#38

Post by waterlesscloud »

araneae wrote: post #36

This was published in a crockpot journal and is likely fake: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2294516

The "analysis" presented there is heavily laden with emotion, which reduces its own credibility in short order.

I know nothing about the Journal Of Cosmology, but the tone of this blog entry prevents me from accepting it as useful information, it comes across more as axe-grinding.

But let's assume JoC is a crackpot journal. Why is a NASA scientist publishing there?

Did he decide that NASA's credibility on alien life discoveries has not been damaged enough and he wanted to make it worse?

Re: NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

#39

Post by [deleted] »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #38
araneae wrote: post #36

This was published in a crockpot journal and is likely fake: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2294516

The "analysis" presented there is heavily laden with emotion, which reduces its own credibility in short order. I know nothing about the Journal Of Cosmology, but the tone of this blog entry prevents me from accepting it as useful information, it comes across more as axe-grinding. But let's assume JoC is a crackpot journal. Why is a NASA scientist publishing there? Did he decide that NASA's credibility on alien life…

[deleted]

Re: NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

#40

Post by damoncali »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #38
araneae wrote: post #36

This was published in a crockpot journal and is likely fake: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2294516

The "analysis" presented there is heavily laden with emotion, which reduces its own credibility in short order. I know nothing about the Journal Of Cosmology, but the tone of this blog entry prevents me from accepting it as useful information, it comes across more as axe-grinding. But let's assume JoC is a crackpot journal. Why is a NASA scientist publishing there? Did he decide that NASA's credibility on alien life…

NASA employs many people. I worked there once myself. That there are crackpots and other less-than-credible folks working there is not only not surprising, but something I witnessed first hand. Despite popular culture's imagery, NASA is not some elite group of the world's finest intellects. It is really no more big a deal than working for a giant military contractor. In fact, most of the workers at NASA do work for a giant military contractor.

That said, I have nothing to offer on the actual subject at hand - the validity of the claims.

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