NASA press conference on astrobiology discovery tomorrow

NASA has announced a press conference on a new astrobiology

discovery scheduled for tomorrow morning at 11am pst. 

Looking at the list of names below who are involved in the 

press conference, there are a lot of really big guns here. 

Specifically in the fields of exobiology and extremophile 

terrestrial biology. 

Based on this, there has been a lot of speculation that NASA 

has found significant evidence of extraterrestrial life. One 

of the possibilities I've seen circulating is that the Cassini 

mission may have found evidence of life on Titan or Enceladus. 

Another possibility is that the remaining rover Opportunity 

may have found organic fossils (or life) on Mars. 

Any of these are possible. It could also be something rather less 

exciting, or, conceivably, something even more exciting. Personally, 

I'm not going to speculate,at least not publicly. But I do know that 

my OUPV students will be getting their lunch break an hour early 

tomorrow. 

Will post more tomorrow, when we'll all know.

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NASA SETS NEWS CONFERENCE ON ASTROBIOLOGY DISCOVERY; 

SCIENCE JOURNAL HAS EMBARGOED DETAILS UNTIL 2 P.M. EST ON DEC. 2

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on 
Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact 
the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the 
study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in 
the universe. 

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium 
at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA 
Television and streamed on the agency's website at 
http://www.nasa.gov. 

Participants are: 
-     Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, 
Washington 
-     Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. 
Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif. 
-     Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Greenbelt, Md. 
-     Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied 
Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla. 
-     James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe 

Media representatives may attend the conference or ask questions by 
phone or from participating NASA locations. To obtain dial-in 
information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and 
telephone number to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov or call 
202-358-0918 by noon Dec. 2. 

For NASA TV streaming video and downlink information, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv 

For more information about NASA astrobiology activities, visit: 

http://astrobiology.nasa.gov