by LoveUniHateExams 23 Replies latest social current
No, I'm not talking about the David Bowie song, I'm asking does life exist on Mars?
Opportunity rover (the one before the present one) took photos of strange, puffball-like sphericals seemingly sprouting on the Martian surface.
These photos aren't conclusive evidence but it is an exciting area to investigate.
I remember the last time they thought they found the remains of bacteria. It was just what the lobbyists needed to get needed funding from Congress. It turned out to be nothing.
NASA needs funding again. So, right of cue new findings emerge. Coincidence?
It's a strong possibility as Mars was hit with the same space debris as earth over millions of years and they have found in metors the basic building blocks for life .
It's a strong possibility as Mars was hit with the same space debris as earth over millions of years
Ah, the old "it must have come from outer space" theory.
... which never explains where that life originated, or how it came to be hurtling through space or manage to survive the impact with a planet.
I do know this-
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them
If you did
But seriously, I strongly believe in the Primordial soup, or prebiotic soup theory. Not necessarily the proposed theory of 1929 published by J.B.S Haldane where he argued that UV radiation provided the energy to convert methane, ammonia and water into the first organic compounds in the oceans of the early earth. Perhaps a better understanding of science such as the proposed idea that gases came from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, or perhaps something else that we haven't figured out yet.
It is unclear whether the conditions to create life could be common to the universe or unique to Earth. People want to believe that since mankind's science cannot yet reproduce the spark of life that it is a false theory or extremely rare. But I say we are in the infancy of our understanding, and we know that "the God of the gaps" keeps shrinking. So maybe we will figure it out one day. And for all we know, life has started more than once on Earth but the dominant life already present has "eaten" it up.
I further believe that with so many stars and so much potential out there, life has started somewhere else, probably more than a few times. But is it primitive, plant, microscopic, developed??? I dunno.
If life did exist at all on Mars, we have seen that life on Earth has clung to the most impossible environments, so I would bet that it's still there somewhere under some rock.
According to Edgar Rice Burroughs their is ,John Carter / Dejah Thoris and their experiences were well documented by him.
Here's the photo which really got my interest:
The one that looks like a double puffball. I don't know what it is. With my frame of reference I would say it looks organic. It's certainly doesn't look like rock formation.
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell - Mars has four seasons which last twice as long as our seasons on Earth. Mars also has polar and equatorial regions.
Yes, Mars is on average colder than Earth but Martian temperatures vary from 35 Celcius at the height of summer to -150 Celcius in winter at the poles.
Obviously no animals could live on Mars.
But what about fungi, plants, bacteria or similar?
It's a fascinating question that's well worth exploring.
The Mars questions are intriguing. Is there life or not? Goodness knows. I guess we will eventually find out. Until then, I pledge allegiance to our Martian overlords.
