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[Reelya]

I searched this thread for "plastic" - didn't find it:

http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/11/29/2331246/nasa-curiosity-has-found-plastic-on-mars

"Last week Curiosity was able to use its SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) device to confirm the discovery. A robotic arm with a complex system of Spectral Analysis devices was able to vaporize and identify gasses from the sample, concluding that it is in fact plastic. How plastic formed or ended up on the Martian surface is quite an exciting mystery that sparks many questions. The type of plastic sampled as we know so far can only be formed using petrochemicals, meaning not only that there could possibly be a source of oil on the Red Planet, but that somehow it got turned into plastic. Even more interesting is that oil or petrochemicals used to create this type of plastic are only known to come from ancient fossilized organic materials, such as zooplankton and algae, which geochemical processes convert into oil pointing to the earthshaking evidence that there was once life on mars. 'Right now we have multiple working hypotheses, and each hypothesis makes certain predictions about things like what the spherules are made of and how they are distributed,' said Curiosity's principal investigator, Steve Squyres, of Cornell University. 'Our job as we explore Matijevic Hill in the months ahead will be to make the observations that will let us test all the hypotheses carefully, and find the one that best fits the observations.'"

[10ebbor10]

Bet you 20 dollars Curiosity actually vapourized part of itself, or from one of the many crashed rovers/sattelites.

If it's true,  then whoa...

Edit: It's a hoax. Even your link admits it.

[Reelya]

Oops, i read it when it first appeared, didn't have the "update" bit about it being a hoax back then.

[MonkeyHead]

Even then, as I had posted before, Curiousity is not capable of dirctly detecting plastics, and is only able to detect the hydrocarbons from which it is formed. You would have a hard time saying that a particular bundle of hydrcarbons in particular quantities/concentrations came from a plastic ahead of any other jumble of organic molecules.

[Reelya]

I did a thread search for "plastic" before I posted, nothing came up, and I don't have time to go back and digest the entire thread before I posted. It's not practical to go back and read ~28 pages of posts before posting anything new.

I have slashdot feeding straight into my email when it's new, that's where I read the story a few days ago, before it was debunked, and I only saw this thread today, and thought it might be interesting.

EDIT: I just did a search for "hydrocarbon" and got zero hits, but "hydrocarbons" got a couple (neither of them written by you though :/) The search feature of this forum sucks. nope nothing (relevant) with the term "plastics" either. If you did mention it, it didn't reference plastic(s) or hydrocarbon(s) directly.

[MonkeyHead]

My previous posts referred to how curiosity detects the building blocks of organics (C, N, H, O) rather than the molecules themselves, during an argument about detecting life directly or fossils. Sorry for any confusion or time wasting.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

No one is afraid they'll crash that asteroid in Earth? Or the weapon potential of controlling a huge rock above our heads?

At least at this stage, it is unlikely that they will be retrieving an asteroid that could make it through the atmosphere. You need a rather large rock to get to Earth's surface.

[Sirus]

No one is afraid they'll crash that asteroid in Earth? Or the weapon potential of controlling a huge rock above our heads?

At least at this stage, it is unlikely that they will be retrieving an asteroid that could make it through the atmosphere. You need a rather large rock to get to Earth's surface.

And even then, it might not be capable of doing much damage.

[lordcooper]

Spoiler: Guess this explains why those so-called nutters have been unable to find Bigfoot. (click to show/hide)

[Bauglir]

Yeah, but we already knew that (the picture is from a previous rover, IIRC).

[Karnewarrior]

That's not bigfoot, that's the first time traveler, before they worked out all the bugs.

[IronyOwl]

Okay seriously, what is that? Damned if it doesn't look like a statue or petrified victim.

[penguinofhonor]

Please. It's just one of the people who was setting up the fake Mars landscape. They just didn't leave the set fast enough.

[alway]

That's wind erosion. It makes cool stuff on earth too! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_processes

Spoiler: Example (click to show/hide)

On Mars, you would get even better wind erosion, since it is much more dry, windy, and the wind carries a large amount of sand and dust.

[Loud Whispers]

Therefore wind erosion is bigfoot.

The more you know.