Comments on: Mars Was Recently Blanketed By Glaciers

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:25:54 +0000

Has anybody considered the black fungus found inside Chernobyl that apparently uses melanin (skin pigment) instead of chlorophyll (excuse my typos) to grow? It uses gamma radiation to stimulate growth instead of regular sunlight spectrum. Look it up. It implies that we my use our own melanin in a similar fashion. It also implies that interstellar life may be possible. Mushroom spores have been proven to survive in the vaccuum of space. Maybe life drifted here from elsewhere. After all, we share over 90% of our DNA with all species of plant and animal. Almost anything could have started us. If the earth ever exploded (fat chance) mushroom spores could certainly travel through interstellar space until smacking into an appropriate growth spot. Think about it.

By: Dante D'Anthony

Dante D'Anthony — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:58:55 +0000

You didn't post my comment? How narrowminded! This is so typical-anyone speaking outside the box in whatever subject matter is often dismissed. Wether it be feminism, religion, science, sciencefiction, yada yada-step outside the mainstream and one is cast out of the disscussion. Considering there ARE higher dimensions, and quantum physics AND we are close to creating an AI that will surpass human intelligence in our lifetime you would have had a little more latitude with the post. Read "the Physics of immortality". I read your website all the time-I'm very dissapointed in the level of narrowmindedness you just showed by refusing my post. LOL.

By: Dante D'Anthony

Dante D'Anthony — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:59:54 +0000

I agree with Brouer: who cares? certainly we know enough about organic chemistry that life elsewhere in the universe should be no big hoo-haa at this point. Are we alone? Hell no, there are six billion of us here and we do nothing but kill and abuse one another most of the time and perpetuate economic systems dating back to ancient Babylon. With expanding knowledge in quantum physics and higher dimensional theory, the big question in my mind isn't wether or not there are more frogs, bugs and fish, but sentiences altogether in another plane of existense…as in "Our father, who art in heaven…" Maybe religion holds more truth than we care to admit.

By: Sheridan

Sheridan — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:31:11 +0000

In response to "The thing is, it's literally impossible for us to be alone in this universe."

A statistical likelihood (I'd like to see your numbers in any case, reminding you the Drake equation isn't exactly the most scientific thing there is) is not the same as absolute certainty. It's completely fallacious to say it's impossible for no other life to exist. I think it's likely that there is other life, but it's just naive to call it a certainty.

By: LLDIAZ

LLDIAZ — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:02:52 +0000

The correct question to ask is,
" Is or was there ever intelligent life beyond our planet". and the answer maybe yes just not now. Or what if there was another intelligent civilization here on earth more advanced then we are could they have existed maybe a billion years ago and we just have'nt found any thing of there's. crazy huh?

By: Jason Leary

Jason Leary — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:43:22 +0000

AN ADDENTA :

Meant to post maybe *some* individual people (are the crown of creation) .

By: Jason Leary

Jason Leary — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:38:01 +0000

To believe that we are alone in the universe is unspeakably bizarre .

And humanity the "crown of creation" …maybe individual people are but humanity as a whole ????? Mary Hart of Entertainement Tonight and the vapid herds of yuppies, who mentally lick up the fiendishly vapid celebrity gossip she dishes up night after night are hardly the crown of humanity !!!!

By: Jason Leary

Jason Leary — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:32:15 +0000

Sr. NOT St. Sorry abvout the typo .

By: Jason Leary

Jason Leary — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:31:15 +0000

Mr.Madison St. consider that the ice glaciers may have fostered air pockets possibly that owuld have had a different air pressure than the outside environs that may have alowed liquid water to poo l .

By: Saavykas

Saavykas — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:59:32 +0000

And we will never hear about this finding again.

By: Butthole

Butthole — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:38:20 +0000

The thing is, it's literally impossible for us to be alone in this universe. The thing you don't seem to understand is that there are hundreds of billions of stars, and hundreds of thousands solar systems outside this one. We humans haven't even been OUTSIDE of our solar system yet, and don't even say we have with probes or satellites because the one we sent to go outside the solar system won't even be there until 2014 or later. If we're the best the unvierse can conjure up, then I feel sorry for it.

By: alphonso richardson

alphonso richardson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:43:09 +0000

I'm in agreement with Finton ( & obviously the late A.C Clarke) on the question of life, Mars & the Universe.

By: Qev

Qev — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:21:19 +0000

@David Madison, Sr.

From what I can figure, at Mars' ambient pressure, liquid water can exist up to around 4C.

By: mark lancaster

mark lancaster — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:41:03 +0000

could mars have lost its atmosphere to a "hot jupiter"?

By: Dave Finton

Dave Finton — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:35:59 +0000

I think Arthur C. Clarke summed it up best, so I'll paraphrase him here: The are two possibilities; either we are alone in the Universe, or we are not. Both scenarios are nearly unimaginable.

By: Watchful Stone Guardian

Watchful Stone Guardian — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:08:39 +0000

David Madison, Sr: Do you not think there would be sufficient pressure from the ice above to allow liquid to form and persist? This liquid lubricating layer is not necessarily caused by surface run-off but the pressure of the ice against the rock beneath. Now the melting of the Greenland glaciers is another story with the surface run-off water acting as supplementary lubrication and accelerating the movement of the glaciers.

On a second note does anyone know the air pressure required for snow to form and persist? I can't picture glaciers forming due to condensation/frost.

By: LLDIAZ

LLDIAZ — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:32:08 +0000

Finding life on Mars is not the point its finding life on two planets in one system, that doubles the chances that life is abundant in the outer reaches of our universe.duh!

By: David Madison, Sr.

David Madison, Sr. — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:45:58 +0000

Liquid water could not have pooled at the base of a melting glacier on Mars. Regardless of the presence of ice, it would not melt into water. It would sublimate into gas. It has been something like 3,000 million years, not 100, since Mars had enough atmospheric pressure to allow liquid water on the surface.

By: Chuck Pearce

Chuck Pearce — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:23:36 +0000

Is it the fear of being alone, or the excitement that comes with that big question "Does life, in any form, exist outside of our planet"? I believe it is the excitement that an answer to that question would bring, cascading into so many other scientific studies. Mars is one of the few reachable, observable planets that within our lifetimes we could find that very answer.

By: Peter Brouwer

Peter Brouwer — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:30:52 +0000

Sorry I meant "mortaly"

By: Peter Brouwer

Peter Brouwer — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:29:13 +0000

Why does every article on Mars involve the question of life? I suspect that human beings are morally afraid of being alone in the cosmos. We've found no plants, no animal, no definite bacterial evidence. Maybe we are the crowning glory of the universe. Maybe we are an abberant genetic mutation that will fail sometime soon. Whatever the answer it seems that the universe does not care, Just like our ecological world does not care – survival of the fitest. If we stuff up this little part of the universe, there are plenty of species ready to "have a go". Let's focus on the life we know – and lose the fear of being alone.