c9: (Default)
c9 ([personal profile] c9) wrote2006-03-09 09:45 pm

On the apostrophe theme...

"Scientists believe Mars's and Jupiter's icy moons might have – or have once had – conditions hospitable to life." --Globe & Mail
I know it's fine, it just looks ugly. Mars'!

[identity profile] sassy-red-head.livejournal.com 2006-03-09 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't think that's fine at all!

[identity profile] cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com 2006-03-09 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
This has been bothering me no end since I read that article in The Atlantic. I want to be correct, but it just seems soooo wrong!

Damn my rules-based tendencies!

[identity profile] bartok.livejournal.com 2006-03-09 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
that can't make sense. There's no way a moon of Mars could have had atmospheres, they're too small.

[identity profile] c9.livejournal.com 2006-03-10 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
That was exactly my first response to the article!

[identity profile] primary-suspect.livejournal.com 2006-03-10 07:47 am (UTC)(link)
But why do you need an atmosphere to sustain life? It might not have been oxygen breathing like ourselves. It might have been simple bacteria or other organisms that didn't live the same way we do.

[identity profile] c9.livejournal.com 2006-03-10 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
Oh yeah, there's always the possibility of unfamiliar life, I'm not disputing that. But Phobos and Deimos have almost no gravity, no atmosphere to retain loquid or gaseous water in the area. My issue was that someone probably said "Mars or Jupiter's moons" and the reporter converted it to "Mars's or Jupiter's moons".