An odd burst of news stories about Mars Phoenix today. NASA and mission managers organized a hasty press conference with project scientists to say that among the salts that the lander finds in the arctic soil are traces of perchlorate – used by industry and included in rocket fuel. It’s pretty toxic to most organisms. It may be natural on Mars. It might somehow be contamination brought by the lander (a slight stretch as its landing rockets used a different chemistry). Word that it has popped up in initial analyses apparently went viral on the internet over the weekend. With that came suspicions that NASA so badly needs the allure of life to maintain public support that it is covering up this discovery. NASA’s version: we’re not sure it’s there, or sure of its source, but anyway it wouldn’t rule out evolution of microbes on Mars because even some Earth bacteria like it fine. That is, there’s a brush fire on the web and we’re here to waterbomb it.
A persuasive, arch, and easy-to-read summary of the behind-the-scenes activity for the press conference is at the IT-focussed news site Ars Technica by John Timmer.
Stories:
Register (UK) Lewis Page writes that NASA’s explanation “may untwist a few knickers around the internet” ; LA Times John Johnson Jr. has the principal investigator for the mission saying perchlorate might even be a positive sign for habitability ; Guardian (UK) Marcus Pearce blogs on it, appropriate for a story that started in the blogosphere ; Science News Ashley Yeager reports conventional media were starting to pick up the internet buzz, hence the press conf. ; AP Alicia Chang leaves out the reason NASA hosted the pc, which somewhat drains the story of any answer to the question, “why am I reading this?” ; Wash. Post Marc Kaufman ; NY Times Kenneth Chang uses a quote picked up by several outlets: a top NASA scientist declaring “We are here today to announced a nonannouncement” ; lots more….
Grist for the Mill: NASA JPL Press Release ;
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