Liquid water has been found on Mars

That will speed up the space program.

Ahhhh, but science, observation, and our knowledge suspected that NO flowing water was on Mars.......hmmmm.......truth is as fluid as that alleged water on the surface of Mars.

Many of them believe the presence of liquid water will also be accompanied by the presence of life.
We'll see.
Looks to me like,  now that they've pinpointed where the flowing liquid water is,  all it will require to answer the life question is the appropriately equipped Mars Rover going to that site.

One talking head on cable tv just said "the discovery of any extraterrestrial life will be the most important discovery in all human history".
Just think, all of us could be living in that really narrow little window of time when the "greatest discovery in history" is made.

I can't help but think about the religion thread,  seaoat.

We don't even know if it's going to happen,  but let's assume "the greatest discovery in the history of humanity" is finding a little microbe on the next planet over.

So here we are,  and that's our biggest claim to fame up until now,  our biggest claim to knowledge.  Finding that little microbe.  
Or put another way,  all we will have discovered is something that's a WHOLE LOT dumber than even the minnow.

And yet,  hundreds of millions of us are fully convinced that they know how all existence began because it was written down by sheep herders two thousand years ago.  When neither the sheep herders nor their god had any clue that a microbe even exists.    

Boggles the mind.

As I think about it,  there's another thing boggling my mind.

The earth has always been the habitat of thousands of different species of microbes.
So the really remarkable thing is how Noah was able to bring all those microbes onto his boat when the microscope wasn't even invented until several thousand years later.
He musta had really keen eyesight.  

And how did he store those microbes on the boat.  Did he just throw them down on the deck beside the T-Rex?

Did that recent "Noah" movie explain that?

2seaoat wrote:Ahhhh, but science, observation, and our knowledge suspected that NO flowing water was on Mars...

This is simply wrong. If you're going to argue against a strawman, at least use a strawman article that is somewhat grounded in reality.

boards of FL wrote:

2seaoat wrote:Ahhhh, but science, observation, and our knowledge suspected that NO flowing water was on Mars...

This is simply wrong.  If you're going to argue against a strawman, at least use a strawman article that is somewhat grounded in reality.

I think there's been plenty of speculation about water on Mars, bds, but seaoat specifically mentioned "flowing" water.
I'm surely no expert on the science of cosmetology (since as you can see I get it mixed up with the science of beauticians), but I don't think they were expecting to find flowing water. Is that not correct?

Bob wrote:

boards of FL wrote:

2seaoat wrote:Ahhhh, but science, observation, and our knowledge suspected that NO flowing water was on Mars...

This is simply wrong.  If you're going to argue against a strawman, at least use a strawman article that is somewhat grounded in reality.

I think there's been plenty of speculation about water on Mars,  bds,  but seaoat specifically mentioned "flowing" water.
I'm surely no expert on the science of cosmetology (since as you can see I get it mixed up with the science of beauticians),  but I don't think they were expecting to find flowing water.  Is that not correct?

I wouldn't agree with 2seaoats framing at all. We have known that water exists on Mars for some time and we have found evidence that flowing water existed at least at some point in Mar's history. I'm not aware of the idea that there was ever any sort of scientific consensus that there is absolutely no flowing water on Mars today. If anything, I have read about the search for flowing water and speculation that it still may perhaps exist. And, apparently, it does.

As I said, I'm no expert on cosmetology or cosmology either one.
And I didn't sleep in a holiday inn last night either. I prefer motel 6.

So I'll defer to you and seaoat on it. Seaoat, you're up.

Mars is fundamentally an igneous planet without any bodies of water. There is believed to be some ice formations but it is a dry planet.

I was taught this as a geology minor in college as we studied mineral content and the geology of the moon and planets. The conclusion was clear. Mars was without any significant water, but some suspected ice. This was the extent of experience and knowledge at the time being taught to students of Geology, and the Moon verification was very fresh in the experience of those professors and scientist that the planet was dry. Now in the intervening years there have been some folks who without confirmation BELIEVED that Mars has signs of surface alluvial transfers which presupposes that water was once on the planet. By golly it looks like my scientist were wrong, and those who theorized of the existence of water on Mars may now have some element of proof, or not. The expanding and changing reality confirmed by our perceptions and experience is always fun to observe.

This is from a current wikipedia page entitled "Water on Mars" and it was written before today's announcement of the NASA discovery...

Gullies and slope lineae along cliffs and crater walls suggest that flowing water continues to shape the surface of Mars, although to a far lesser degree than in the ancient past.

Although the surface of Mars was periodically wet and could have been hospitable to microbial life billions of years ago,[55] the current environment at the surface is dry and subfreezing, probably presenting an insurmountable obstacle for living organisms.

This is a little confusing. The first paragraph is telling us flowing water was thought to be on Mars before it was confirmed today.
The second paragraph kinda contradicts that by saying "the current environment at the surface is dry".

The science in the early 70s based upon the geology and exploration of the moon was that Mars was a dry planet with the possibility of some ice.

I think what you're emphasizing, seaoat, is how our knowledge is continually advancing and that continued advancement often contradicts what we thought we knew in the past.
And that's often presented fundamental changes in our body of knowledge.
Our entire understanding of the universe was turned upside down with Einstein's discoveries.
Who's to say that cannot happen again.

Who's to say that cannot happen again.

That is the irony of the religion of atheism......the fallacy of perception as truth.

Have we not considered that this recent find COULD be aliens (as in Martians or men from mars) traveling to California and sucking up the water supply and sending it back to Mars?

Huh?  

2seaoat wrote:Who's to say that cannot happen again.

That is the irony of the religion of atheism......the fallacy of perception as truth.

Well I agree that atheism does sometimes take the form of a religion.

But "the fallacy of perception as truth" also applies to religious faith. In spades. lol

SheWrites wrote:Have we not considered that this recent find COULD be aliens (as in Martians or men from mars) traveling to California and sucking up the water supply and sending it back to Mars?

Huh?  

Don't laugh. Someone else has a theory that aliens created humans to mine gold for the aliens. And his theory is NOT tongue-in-cheek. lol

https://theupliftingcrane.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/were-humans-created-to-mine-gold-for-aliens/

Bob wrote:

SheWrites wrote:Have we not considered that this recent find COULD be aliens (as in Martians or men from mars) traveling to California and sucking up the water supply and sending it back to Mars?

Huh?  

Don't laugh.    Someone else has a theory that aliens created humans to mine gold for the aliens.  And his theory is NOT tongue-in-cheek.  lol

https://theupliftingcrane.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/were-humans-created-to-mine-gold-for-aliens/

Some folks got some time on their hands...

SheWrites wrote:

Some folks got some time on their hands...

I often go to sleep at night listening to AM Coast to Coast. I don't know if you're familiar with what that is, but suffice to say it's a celebration of every bizarre claim in existence. But with some actual truth thrown in too.
Mainly the bizarre stuff though. And since the radio stays on after I'm asleep, it often produces some nightmares that are even more bizarre.