NASA Announcement: 3 Theories on What the Space Agency Has Discovered

(Nov. 30) -- E.T., phone home. NASA may have figured out where you are hiding.

On Thursday, officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will hold a much-hyped news conference to, according to a press release, unveil an "astrobiological finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." Speculation about what that finding may be has become fodder for the kind of conjecture not seen on the Internet since Apple released its latest product.

While NASA's teaser announcement seems to indicate that the agency has not, in fact, discovered evidence of extraterrestrials zooming about the universe, it does raise the possibility that evidence of alien beings may have been found. Adding to the intrigue of the event, four of the scientists who'll be presenting NASA's as-yet-mysterious findings are a geobiologist, an oceanographer, a biologist and an ecologist, CBS News reported.

Here are some theories that have been floated so far as to what NASA has turned up:

1. Life on one of Saturn's moons

Over at Kotaku, the speculation has centered on Rhea, one of Saturn's moons.

Chances are it has something to do with the recent discovery by the NASA-led international Cassini-Huygens mission of a tentative atmosphere containing both oxygen and carbon dioxide on the surface of Saturn's moon Rhea.

The oxygen in Rhea's atmosphere is five trillion times less dense than that of Earth, and the surface of the moon is far too cold to support life as we know it. That doesn't rule out life as we don't know it.

2. Arsenic

At Kottke.org, one theory again focused on one of Saturn's moons, but not Rhea.

So, 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). Or something like that.

Almost at once, however, Alexis Madrigal, science editor at The Atlantic, threw cold water on the notion that NASA had proof of alien life.

I'm sad to quell some of the @kottke-induced excitement about possible extraterrestrial life. I've seen the Science paper. It's not that.less than a minute ago via Seesmic twhirlalexismadrigal
alexismadrigal

3. A new model for the existence of life

Writing at Discovery, Phil Plait suggest that rather than blowing the crowd away with a photograph of a little green alien, NASA is more likely to unveil a discovery about the conditions required for life to exist.

Of course, the speculation is that NASA will announce the discovery for life. Maybe. I can't rule that out, but it seems really unlikely; I don't think they would announce it in this way. It would've been under tighter wraps, or one thing. It's more likely they've found a new way life can exist and that evidence for these conditions exists on other worlds. But without more info, I won't speculate any farther than that.

Check back with Surge Desk for a live feed of NASA's press conference, which will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday.

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