That astonishingly awesome claim comes from Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who says he has found conclusive evidence of alien life — fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) Hoover’s findings were published late Friday night in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

believer;700763 wrote:The obsession to find alien microbes is hardly justification to keep spending money we don't have.

You say the implications are staggering. Why should that knowledge be "staggering"? What do we stand to gain from it besides confirmation that it exists? Does it improve our quality of life? Will it help feed the hungry? Will it pay off our national debt?

Seriously...I don't understand why we must spend millions of dollars finding "alien bacteria".

mrtinkertrain;700773 wrote:The implication's are mind boggling you simpleton! If true it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are not alone! This would easily be one of the top scientific discoveries in the history of mankind and all your concerned about is the friggin budget deficit?

thedynasty1998;700796 wrote:NASA is a waste.

Mohican00;700789 wrote:Hi, this is not the politics forum. Fuck off]

tk421;700748 wrote:I didn't want to put this in the other NASA thread because I wanted everyone to be able to see this. This is just another excellent reason to keep NASA around, or better yet increase their funding.

dave;700863 wrote:they sure did release this at a convenient time.

Nate;700946 wrote:It looks like a penis shaped turd to me.

O-Trap;700996 wrote:If, however, what he claims is true, this is quite a find indeed!

ytownfootball;701003 wrote:We continue to find newer forms of life not based solely on sunlight (fumaroles in deep oceans) on our own planet that suggest other forms of life are possible. Why should we stop looking outside our own confines again?

ytownfootball;701010 wrote:Living so near State College has not done you well believer, not at all. Like I said there are much less worthy endeavors that should hit the chopping block before NASA, I really don't see it as debatable.

believer;701019 wrote:I'm certainly not defending wasteful taxpayer funded research projects...and there are indeed plenty of them here in Happy Valley. It doesn't mean NASA's budget shouldn't be heavily scrutinized.

ytownfootball;701021 wrote:There's a difference between scrutinizing and just off-handily discounting discovery as worthless and a waste.

believer;701022 wrote:Well-time discovery I might add. Never waste a good crisis.

ytownfootball;701024 wrote:They have to lobby for funding just like every other program, not sure why this is such a surprise. I would argue that they shouldn't need to lobby for their funding, but I put a higher value on discovery than a lot of other programs that are funded more heavily.