NASA to annouce life on Mars

[dainbramage20]

Originally posted by Japher

This is good news, and I hope there is life on Mars so that once and for all I can't stop hearing that stupid story about Adam and Eve.

So tell us again how a booger riding on an icy comet for 500,000 trillion years flew through Jupiter, then richoceted off mars and crashed into earth bringing life,water, and atmosphere as we know it.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by dainbramage20
I dont understand some things about this tho. Mars may have only been wet for a few hundred thousand years. What conditions were different during those years that are different now? Surely something catalysmic must have happened. Or the planets core is cold and was fubared. Or wasnt it foobared since its creation??? It was only internally active for the first 100 million years. Seems red-faced scientists have alot of updating of there history books, as usual . Clearly the pieces of the puzzle wont fit with the current mars timeline.


The good news about life.......

This lends new credibility to the ancient/present life on mars theory. If fossils are found, Simple or complex, the the atmosphere may have been thriving with life. Then it may turn out that the structures at the mysterouis 'Cydonia' site are infact evidence of an ancient civilization. Which excites me greatly. I thought the smooth like Pyramid stuctures were strange since Viking first took them.

There are two Theories I know from:
1. Mars Atmosphere was denser in the Past than it is today. Buit as Mars is much smaller than earth it couldn´t hold its Atmosphere and most of it slowly disappeared into space (with a less dense atmosphere also leading to colder Temperatures)
2. As Mars is smaller than Earth its Planet Core cooled down after some Million (or Billion) of Years. This lead to a Stop in Tectonic Activity and also to a Stop in Heating the Surface of the Planet from below (and also in less/no volcanic acticity from this point on).

Both changes may have played a role in changing the climate of Mars.

[dainbramage20]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST
2. As Mars is smaller than Earth its Planet Core cooled down after some Million (or Billion) of Years. This lead to a Stop in Tectonic Activity and also to a Stop in Heating the Surface of the Planet from below (and also in less/no volcanic acticity from this point on).

There are a few but you touched on the best ones.


Yup. I assume a warmer core would of kept the water from freezing. As of now its a bit too cold. Mars is pretty damn hospitable by human standards. In the Summer it can reach 40 F around the equator. But winter can drop Below 250F around the poles.

1. Mars Atmosphere was denser in the Past than it is today. Buit as Mars is much smaller than earth it couldn´t hold its Atmosphere and most of it slowly disappeared into space (with a less dense atmosphere also leading to colder Temperatures)

Well it couldnt hold its atmosphere without an active core or an Magnetic Field (In all theories, it has niether)
I think Martian Internal activitiy is measured anywhere from 10-100 million years. A pretty small window for any life to evolve or land there, or whatever. But nonetheless Im guessing its only a matter of time before the figure is changed too give some kind of hope for finding life.

Martian summer would sound pretty good right now

[Tripledoc]

Is it Possible?

Say you find three microbes on three different planets in different solar systems. The three microbes are similar but on variable progressions of evolutionary stages. Would it from this information be possible to triangulate the original source of the microbe? That is the star system that the microbe originated in.

[:) Smiley]

Now is there oil? That would be a sure sign of life once existing on Mars.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Tripledoc
Is it Possible?

Say you find three microbes on three different planets in different solar systems. The three microbes are similar but on variable progressions of evolutionary stages. Would it from this information be possible to triangulate the original source of the microbe? That is the star system that the microbe originated in.

Extremly difficulty if not even impossible.
Bacteriae are known to mutate at an extremly high rate.
For one because they are known to be able to share Genes, and because they have a very short Lifespan until they are replaced by the next Generation of Bacteriae (those are also the tow reasons, why Bacteriae are so fast in obtaining Immunity from sdeveral Antibiotica )

So, even if you know that these 3 Microbes have a common ancestor, you couldn´t say where it originated, as the genetic setup of each Bacteria Colony would have been very probably totally altered (from the genetic setup of their ancestor) during their stay in the any of the 3 Environments after a very short time.

[Lancer]

"Let's hope not the life I know from "Mars Attacks""

Bebro, think again, the blonde chick in that flick had a nice set of cones.

I hope there's ancient oil and/or coal on Mars that we can turn into rocket fuel.

[dainbramage20]

Originally posted by Tripledoc
Is it Possible?

Say you find three microbes on three different planets in different solar systems. The three microbes are similar but on variable progressions of evolutionary stages. Would it from this information be possible to triangulate the original source of the microbe? That is the star system that the microbe originated in.

I am a firm believer in Evolution but hold its core beliefs up to a different standard than most. Most noticeably I inject an element of Religon that Evolution lacks when asking the question why?

In any case it would most likely have earthly origins. Lets also not forget Human microbe's and bacteria are already festering on the moon, mars, venus, and Jupiter. I read a doc about when we do go back to the moon how shocked we are gonna be that there will suddenly be 'life'. . Mutated and sparse but it will be there. Bacteria is cannibalistic in nature. Can survive anywhere

They used the moon as a testing pad of sorts (unknowingly) so as to find way not to contaminate later exploration sites (Europa, Titan, Euclyadues, other outer Solar systems satelittes that show possible life). Hence why the probe Galileo was crashed into Jupiter and not Europa as planned.

[monkspider]

I wonder how evolved life might have been on Mars?

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by monkspider
I wonder how evolved life might have been on Mars?

The same must be asked of an earth where thousands of lives are slaughtered daily.

[ErikM]

Originally posted by Smiley
Now is there oil? That would be a sure sign of life once existing on Mars.

That would be a sure sign that there are weapons of mass destruction hidden on Mars.

[monkspider]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel


The same must be asked of an earth where thousands of lives are slaughtered daily.

Excellent point.

[Urban Ranger]

Could a signal from the stars broadcast by an alien intelligence also carry harmful information, in the spirit of a computer virus? Could star folk launch a "disinformation" campaign -- one that covers up aspects of their culture? Perhaps they might even mask the "real" intent of dispatching a message to other civilizations scattered throughout the Cosmos.

Oh yeah. Here's somebody who doesn't know which end of his body he talks out from. Computer virus? Disinformation campaign? Oh brother. I would laugh my head off if this is not so pathetic.

Originally posted by Tripledoc
It would be especially dangerous if it was proven that mars once contained more advanced forms of life, since the microbes may have been designed to destroy.

Microbes designed to destroy Martian lifeforms is highly improbable to infect living organisms on earth, seeing that the evolutionary path of lifeforms on the two planets are unlikely to be similar.

Originally posted by Tripledoc
And the microbes might carry computer vira within them, capable of transmitting themselves deep into any analytical computer which is exposed to the data.

I don't know what are you on, but it must be really potent.

[Tripledoc]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST
Bacteriae are known to mutate at an extremly high rate.
For one because they are known to be able to share Genes, and because they have a very short Lifespan until they are replaced by the next Generation of Bacteriae.

Presuming that it is indeed possible to prove that each microbe originates from the same source.

Each local strain will be placed on the bacterial tree of life. From that the arrival of the microbe on the planet it is inhabiting can be dated, however inaccuarately depending on radiation levels and so on, but they can be corrected for. Each mircobe will have a different arrival time so planet a have +x, planet b +y, planet z +c.

Then the distance to the source may be deduced, by triangulating the position (although I am not quite sure how that would be done in a three dimensional space), and the origin of life in the universe may be found.

What I need to know is if it is possible to triangulate a position if you do not know the distance, but only the variations of arrival time for each planet. In short I am not quite sure about this triangulation thing. Any mathematicians out there?

[Kuciwalker]

Why would the microbes be spreading at a constant rate away from the point of origin?

Plus, if life on earth didn't originate on earth, the stuff that came here was VERY primitive - not even really a cell.