tblaxland
O-F Administrator
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0911/24marslife/
I really am looking forward to a Mars sample return mission...
Martian meteorite surrenders new secrets of possible life
- Thread starter tblaxland
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Marcel
New member
NASA finds new evidence for life on Mars
http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/44844-nasa-finds-new-evidence-for-life-on-mars
This is looking pretty definite!
http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/44844-nasa-finds-new-evidence-for-life-on-mars
This is looking pretty definite!
JamesG
Orbinaut
No more definitive than last time.
RisingFury
OBSP developer
Ouch... I'm not believing this until a probe like Phoenix on Mars finds something similar.
Marcel
New member
"Ouch... I'm not believing this until a probe like Phoenix on Mars finds something similar."
That rock was knocked off of Mars a long time ago. Life may have evolved, then went extinct. Then again, it may be very hard to get rid of life completely once it starts. Think of what we have in vents going deep into the crust here. I don't think that even a full-scale nuclear war could completely eliminate all traces of life here. I want to believe! I can't wait to hear what NASA has to say.
That rock was knocked off of Mars a long time ago. Life may have evolved, then went extinct. Then again, it may be very hard to get rid of life completely once it starts. Think of what we have in vents going deep into the crust here. I don't think that even a full-scale nuclear war could completely eliminate all traces of life here. I want to believe! I can't wait to hear what NASA has to say.
RisingFury
OBSP developer
Exactly. This thing went through a large scale collision, several decades of space travel, reentry, years and years of cold conditions and multiple chance of getting contaminated.
A single rock in such a bad shape is no concrete proof of life beyond Earth, doesn't matter how much you try to rule out the possibility of contamination on Earth.
Now, if we find similar structures on Mars, that would go a good way towards prooving it.
When I say similar...
If you found DNA based life on Europa, there's a high chance it originated on Earth.
jinglesassy
New member
this isnt really defenitive it has many chances of being contaminated like said in the post above the only way for defenitive proof of life on mars is to find evidence there we have proof that water has flown on it but no evidence of life
jinglesassy
New member
who knows but probally microbial not complex life but this shows nothing except that meteors can be contamitated when they land on earth
RisingFury
OBSP developer
Actually, if life existed on Mars, there's no way to say for certain it was only microbial. The current surface conditions are harsh and would have wiped out any chance of fosils remaining on the surface.
Now that we know water flowed on it's surface in the past, that's good evidence that the temperatures were higher in the past. Also, that hints that the atmosphere was thicker in the past.
Though if you find atmosphere containing large amounts of Ozone, that will be a cause for celebration......
Now that we know water flowed on it's surface in the past, that's good evidence that the temperatures were higher in the past. Also, that hints that the atmosphere was thicker in the past.
Though if you find atmosphere containing large amounts of Ozone, that will be a cause for celebration......
jinglesassy
New member
RisingFury
OBSP developer
If you find a large concentration of Ozone in the upper atmosphere of a planet, that's a good indicator that the planet has a strong magnetic field and a good UV shield. UV rays are the lowest form of ionizing radiation, therefore damaging to life.
Life could still be sustained under UV radiation, just it would be much harsher, given that the damage from UV should be constantly repaired.
Also, Ozone has a very short lifespan in the atmosphere and needs a mechanism that constantly replenishes it. That mechanism is in the upper atmosphere, where O2 interacts with UV Rays and gains another Oxygen atom...
So now we've established that for Ozone to be there, there's a high chance of a strong magnetic field, a large amount of Oxygen and with that, a large probability of water and since Ozone removes UV and magnetic field removes high energy particle radiation, you'll have a nice shield, water and Oxygen, vital to life as we know it.
Life could still be sustained under UV radiation, just it would be much harsher, given that the damage from UV should be constantly repaired.
Also, Ozone has a very short lifespan in the atmosphere and needs a mechanism that constantly replenishes it. That mechanism is in the upper atmosphere, where O2 interacts with UV Rays and gains another Oxygen atom...
So now we've established that for Ozone to be there, there's a high chance of a strong magnetic field, a large amount of Oxygen and with that, a large probability of water and since Ozone removes UV and magnetic field removes high energy particle radiation, you'll have a nice shield, water and Oxygen, vital to life as we know it.
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Ghostrider
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break out the wine i found one its called earth :lol: so drink up!
Let's not go to Earth. It's a silly place.
Andy44
owner: Oil Creek Astronautix
There is good reason to hope there is not, and never has been, life on Mars: The Great Filter and Fermi's Paradox.
Although I agree on that point completely, I wonder- if not based on DNA, what could alien life be based upon?
Surface conditions are actually quite mundane on Mars. Remember; fossils are essentially rocks. As long as those fossils are not covered by lava or exposed to atmospheric sand abrasion, they should be fine.
Although I would not rule out the possiblity of complex life living on Mars in the past, I find the concept highly unlikely.
No offense intended, but your statement is IMO utterly absurd- a few microbes on Mars has nothing to do with the Fermi paradox.
Modern instruments are simply not able to detect life on other planets. Stand 50 light years away from Earth with one of our best telescopes and you'd be hard pressed to find trees or animals, let alone microbes.
Stand a meter away from a counter-top, and find the teeming microbes on the surface (without the proper equipment, of course). It will be equally difficult.
Fermi's paradox only applies to intelligent civilisations (and pretty advanced ones at that). Don't rule out a very possible (and I mean VERY possible, in terms of microbial life) thing because you don't see it building Dyson spheres and interstellar lasers.
Of course, when it comes to intelligent life, this sums it up pretty well:
RisingFury
OBSP developer
Actually, there is a good reason to hope there was life on Mars. Just... people are to scared of their own deaths and hope there was none.
RisingFury
OBSP developer
Actually, you're wrong... surface conditions on Mars - even now - are not exactly forgiving. The sand storms shoots particles all over the place and sands down rocks. Temperature variations over time make cracks. If we assume in the past the atmosphere was thick enough for complex life, we must assume that life died off long before Mars lost most of it's atmosphere, which means there were still millions of years left to prevent any fosils to survive on the surface.
Oh, one more thing... Mars isn't round. It's not even a spheroid, like Earth... it's like an egg. That is believed to be the result of a monumental impact. If that impact stripped Mars of it's habitable conditions, it most probably killed off any chance of fossils being preserved.
Fossils have survived much more on Earth. Constant erosion of rocks, temperature variations in the top layers of permafrost and constant tectonic shifting.
Once you get a few meters within a rock (not even that- probably a few centimeters) it should be untouched by sandblasting, even over several million years.
Thermal cracking is another problem, I'll grant you that. But not one to totally destroy all fossils on the surface of the planet. Earth is far more active then Mars geologically.
No. Mars lost it's habitable conditions over time due to lessening volcanic activity and atmospheric erosion from the solar wind.
Mars is indeed oddly shaped. This is due to the large volcanic Tharsis bulge. I cannot think of any impact that would qualify as your deforming event, although Hellas and Argyre spring to mind.
Either way, such an impact would not have destroyed all fossils. Geological structures exist on Mars that date back to before the time of the impact.
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