NASA has incited the excitement of space camp alums everywhere with the announcement of a Thursday press conference that could discuss findings of life beyond earth.
"NASA will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. PST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life," NASA said in a Wednesday statement. "Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe."
Although NASA only gave vague details as to what would be discussed at the press conference, it provided just enough information to cause mass speculation around the Web.
According to a Yahoo News report, it's doubtful that alien life has been found. In the unlikely event that it has, Yahoo said it's probably from Mars, considering the Exploration Rover Spirit has been sitting idle on the red planet after getting trapped in sand about a year ago. This amount of time would allow the rover, which has been examining Mars since 2004, to monitor chemical changes that would imply the presence of life.
The impending findings will be published in a scientific journal, but are being kept under wraps until Thursday morning. Blogger Jason Kottke has speculated that it could be a finding concerning Titan or Rhea, two of Saturn's moons.
"If I had to guess at what NASA is going to reveal on Thursday, I'd say that they've discovered arsenic on Titan and maybe even detected chemical evidence of bacteria utilizing it for photosynthesis (by following the elements)," Kottke wrote.
However, until Thursday morning, bloggers have free reign to make guesses that sound like they came straight from the pages of the Weekly World News.
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