Something Fishy's Happening on Mars

August 03, 2008

Updated at 10:15 a.m. EDT (see below)

Nope, no fish on Mars. You didn't hear that at the Space Disco blog first.

But do check out Emily Lakdawalla's blog over at the Planetary Society (not to be confused with the Planetary Science Institute) -- apparently something very interesting was found in a recent wet chemistry experiment on the Red Planet.

We'll have to wait to hear about what they found, though, because the Mars team is allegedly holding out until they can get their results peer-reviewed.

Emily points out that the Mars Phoenix Twitter feed has refuted the two biggest claims so far:
1) life -- past or present -- was not discovered on Mars
2) Phoenix scientists have not met with the White House about the findings

Then again, it's also important to remember that almost anyone can pull the levers and push the buttons behind a Twitter feed; for all anyone knows, it could be me... (I kid, I kid!)

So here's what I'm going to do: Have the experts tell Discovery Space exactly what happened over the weekend, because no one really seems to have a clue. Confusion breeds chaos, goes that one famous saying. I think.

I'll keep you updated, of course, so keep checking back often!

UPDATE 1 (10:05 a.m. EDT): Michael Hecht, the lead scientist for the MECA instrument on the Phoenix Mars Lander, which is the source of all the "interestingness" (as I'd like to call it) that's going on right now, responded to an email I sent out over the weekend.

Here is the Aviation Week article he's referring to. And now the message, with emphasis added in italics:

We appreciate the interest from Discovery Space ... but we can only talk about what has been released.

We share your concern about the rumors and there is likely to be a press release to address them, possibly as soon as tomorrow.

Much of the content of the Aviation Week article was actually discussed in the press conference on July 31 (available on the University of Arizona iTunes site if you didn't see it), though the story has grown in the retelling on the internet.

Mike Hecht

So we gather from this, from a major official on the Phoenix Mars Lander team, that:

1) A press release is coming out within 24 hours to address the rumors
2) There are indeed plenty of rumors going around
3) People on the Internet (aka news providers and bloggers) are blowing the Aviation Week report out of proportion

So, more thumb twiddling as we wait for an interview with someone on the MECA team...

Photo: NASA