Comments on: Imminent Discovery of Life On Mars?

By: TD

TD — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:09:05 +0000

Water splashed up on the Phoenix landing strut…..the recent announcement of seasonal methane on Mars….fantastic.

By: Cliff Fraser

Cliff Fraser — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:21:44 +0000

@feenixx
Just revisiting this old thread but would add:

The spectrum of life on this little planet is very diverse and has changed over the millenia to suit the conditions. Dinosaurs could not exist today because the oxygen content of the atmosphere has reduced from 30% to 20%, they would suffocate.

Similar, but not quite the same conditions on another planet could produce a whole different set of species. Even on earth there are some strange species evolving around underwater volcanic vents in the mid-Atlantic that require no sunlight.

The evolutionary leap that raised our intelligence way above the next most intelligent creature on this planet could on another planet do the same to an entirely different species.

Blood is not red in all species on Earth.

By: Celestial Being

Celestial Being — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:11:04 +0000

'Looking for life in all the wrong places, looking for life'. Haa! What a organization of funny beings, Haa! Looking for life on the surface of Mars is definatly not the way to go, Haa! GO DOWN

By: Feenixx

Feenixx — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:22:02 +0000

@TD
those results have now come in….

@Cliff Fraser
you say: the universe is made of the same stuff throughout so, given the right conditions (and they are fairly precise) life will evolve… and yes, that's exactly how science works: the same "stuff in the mix" returns the same results – that's how scientists make up and test hypotheses and theories.

It stands, imo, to scientific reason that life exists throughout the Universe, that it hangs on to whatever it can for as long as it can (until the conditions become too extreme even for extremophile life forms)… and also: since all matter in the Universe comes from the same kind of "star dust", set adrift by the same quantum fluctuations when the singularity went "Bang" , all life throughout the Universe is bound to be very similar and reasonably familiar to us.

Sci-Fi Fans looking for strange Silicon based entities with luminous green blood or bacteria that eat Uranium are most likely out of luck.

to quote Ned Kelly: "Such is Life"

By: TD

TD — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:09:50 +0000

So it's been almost 2 1/2 months since this article and I want to get the last word – but Phoenix still hasn't gotten any icy soil mix into the oven. So, I'll be back with the last word when those results are finally in.

By: Cliff Fraser

Cliff Fraser — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:08:15 +0000

Since posting previously I have read through some more of the previous posts. Most refer to a belief in something, which means in effect they have no proof. My point, and its difficult to make it any simpler, is that the universe is made of the same stuff throughout so, given the right conditions (and they are fairly precise) life will evolve, it's what rock does.

By: Chuck Lam

Chuck Lam — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:04:59 +0000

It is logically certain that some form of life exists elsewhere in the universe. Maybe there will be some simple form of life detected on Mars and then again, maybe not. We'll simply have to wait and see! Concerning the possibility of discovering or communicating with an intelligent alien probably will never happen. While the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere is strong, it will most likely be very rare with mind-bending distances of tens of thousands of light years between species. Any attempt to communicate with modulated radio frequency over just a few light years by any intelligence will be lost in the overwhelming natural background noise of the universe. The challenge to detect a multi-light-year weakened signal will be very similar to trying to locate a burning candle on the surface of distant star. It just isn't going to happen. I fervently believe SETI is wasting their time and our tax dollars looking for evidence of alien intelligence. However, it would be interesting to hear from someone at SETI concerning their ability to detect, say, a near non-existing femto-watt of any frequency RF.

By: Cliff Fraser

Cliff Fraser — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:55:49 +0000

From what I've read and it does seem logical, the Universe is made of the same matter throughout. Given the right set of circumstances life evolves from matter; density, gravity, distance from a heat and light source, time etc. If the conditions on Mars at any time in its evolution came within the parameters that allow life to form then evidence of past life forms will eventually be found, the same applies to all planets in this solar system, the solar systems of every other star in this Galaxy and in every other Galaxy. To be otherwise would contradict basic physics.

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By: Kim

Kim — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:51:52 +0000

I am still wondering how life can exist in space. Like do even know if life can exist on Mars or Uranus? In school I am doing a project for Science and we are trying to find if life exists on Uranus or any of it's moons.
So if you can tell me if life exists on Uranus or any of it's moons Leave a Reply answering my question. Thank you : )

By: George

George — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:37:45 +0000

millions of christians believe life exists outside of our solar system.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:02:41 +0000

A few years ago, Looking at Infrared spectra of Mars from the European Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) CAM CVF I noticed features absorption corresponding to the "Sinton bands" cited as evidence of extraterrestrial chlorophyll back in the 1960s. The evidence was rejected when some of the bands were attributed to water (?) in Earth's upper atmosphere. Well, I doubt the bands in Mars' spectrum are chlorophyll (maybe something organic though), but the ISO was above earth's atmosphere so they are certainly on Mars whatever they are. Much evidence of this sort may have been rejected early on as soon as a plausible alternative was suggested (extrordinary demands require extraordinary proof, etc.). When in fact, because of the importance of the possible, if extraordinary, original suggestion, follow ups should have been pursued. No one need account something as 'proof' of life in order to find it intriguing enough to investigate. The Viking chemistry has not been revisited with newly designed experiments capable of checking the hypotheses generated for over 30 years!

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:38:09 +0000

I predict no life or indications thereof from Phoenix or MSL. Also Phoenix will not find permafrost with its digging arm.
I also am pessimistic that the true cause of its predecessor's demise is not known and there is a chance Phoenix may suffer the same glitch, which may be akin to auroral activity near the poles, i.e. charged particle flux affecting vehicle electronics adversely after a charge buildup on the vehicle's surface. I hope things work.

By: Eric Conrad

Eric Conrad — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:40:26 +0000

The question should never be how life got to Earth. The question should be how life formed from non-living matter.

By: EaB

EaB — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:25:35 +0000

Life exsits everywhere even in space itself. We must change our narrow concept of what life is and can be. Life always finds a way thats the point of being here. Every planet even the sun has life on it, life is amazing and very resilient and can adapt to survive anywhere.

By: CyclonusRIP

CyclonusRIP — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:35:46 +0000

At the end of the day one has to realize that life on earth is just one example of how life can evolve. Life on other planets could have followed a completely different path and not be subject to any of the conditions that need to be present for earth based lifeforms. The reality of it is that as science progresses, even on our planet, we are finding new forms of metabolism we never imagined would exist, and we are finding them because we finally bothered to look in places that people nearly universally believed it couldn't 50 years ago.

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:39:50 +0000

# RobbiNewman Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 12:47 am

Chances areâ€¦ life on other planets will discover us before we discover them.

Yeap I agree and that already happened with the ALH 84001 find, life on Mars came to us, and we just looked the other way.

Very rude we are.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:23:47 +0000

Right on, Robbi. There's star stuff out in the Universe put together alot earlier than us, any telescope on Earth will show this. They already had Uranium while we were still messing around with Lithium. What is really fascinating is that there is a good chance that there are more neuron cells in our brains than there are stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. The future destiny of Mankind is far more precious than where he travels and what he meets. Good thinking, Robbi

By: Ian Maclean

Ian Maclean — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:43:04 +0000

I hope this is the case, that life will be found.
Much of the evidence coming out of the Mars missions lately have not been in favor of life being found. This is in spite of the obvious presence of liquid water on the Martian surface in the past.
Worthy of further investigation to be sure !

By: RobbiNewman

RobbiNewman — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:47:44 +0000

Chances are… life on other planets will discover us before we discover them.

By: geokstr

geokstr — Thu, 15 May 2008 03:42:10 +0000

I hope someone at NASA has considered that the Earth may have seeded life on Mars, but not aeons ago, perhaps as recently as the 1970's, when the first landings were made. How long might it take Earth microbes to mutate and spread from all the various landing/impact sites to the Phoenix landing site?

By: spheros

spheros — Thu, 15 May 2008 03:21:47 +0000

This topic is not about Man walking on Mars. It's about the possibility of abiotic or panspermatic life. Bob has the only rational comment on here. And regardless of your opinions on Richard Hoagland, NASA will tell us what they WANT to tell us. Let's not forget that NASA is first and foremost a department of defense organization. Emotional opinions are moot until NASA decides the time is right to tell us anything.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:07:01 +0000

I certainly hope they find something that's alive, and I hope it's different enough that we can say for certain it evolved while segregated from any influence Earth's life could have had (say, something silicone based or something).

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:39:28 +0000

Read deeper Flavius. When mankind finally reaches Mars we will find life there –(ourselves).

By: FlaviusCrispus

FlaviusCrispus — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:58:42 +0000

Typical conspiratorial mindset crap. If there's any hint of possible life on Mars, past or present, NASA will TRUMPET it to all corners of the world. They did that in 1996, when they only had a Martian meteorite to go by. It would not only justify the billions spent on Mars exploration so far, it would probably guarantee funding for more robotic and human exploration.