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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 12/13/2007 : 06:43:56
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Here's a very interesting article on the Mars rover Spirit's latest discovery:
Spirit, one of the two US robotic probes probing the surface of Mars, made a key find suggesting the existance of past microbial life on the Red Planet, NASA mission scientists said this week.
Scientists have theorized that a patch of nearly-pure silica that Spirit discovered in May could have been formed by processes which on Earth establish conditions for microbial life, according to a report from NASA's Pasadena, California Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the rovers.
One theory is that the silica -- the main ingredient for glass -- was produced in a hot spring. The other is that it was generated in a fumarole, where acidic steam seeps through cracks in the planet surface.
Both types of environments on Earth are home to extensive microbial life, according to the agency.
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Oddly enough, there are species of fish that also live in hot springs, even highly acidic ones. How exciting it would be to find a fossil! A pity it's so unlikely.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2007 : 09:31:01 [Permalink]
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Hmmm..... Some thoughts:
If they find existing or past life on Mars and that life is very similar to Earth life - uses DNA and so on - then we have to wonder where and when life actually began. Here, there, somewhere else? The ID folks would claim life must have been created as how could the same kind of life arise in two different places without divine guidance? Another related possibility is life was seeded here and there and elsewhere intentionally? Did some von neuman machine or a wandering johnny appleseed alien seed life here 3 billion years ago? (This is technically ID too, right?) Of course there are other reasonable ways life could arise on Mars and Earth like this, like microbes hitchhiking on a Mars meteor to Earth or something. It could happen...
If life is found, but it's definitely different, then we can more safely embrace the expectation that the universe will be awash in life. And this makes the Fermi Paradox far more ernest. If life is common, where is everybody? Are we under quarantine in a kind of wilderness park? Are there Berserkers out there exterminating everything? Does every technical species eventually develop computer technology and use simulation to 'go into the box' and never come out?
In any case, if they find existing life on Mars, whether or not it is like Earth life, we're going to have contamination issues. Likely the planet will be quarantined - no visits, no sample return and no teraforming - both to protect us from them (potential dangerous pathogen transport to Earth) and them from us (inadvertant destruction of whatever biosphere Mars has). Colonization will be in very serious doubt. I have mixed feelings about whether this would be a good find or not based on this. |
-Chaloobi
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| Edited by - chaloobi on 12/20/2007 09:31:54 |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
 Posted - 12/20/2007 : 11:36:50 [Permalink]
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One point about the Fermi question: (Where are they?) It presupposes that alien intelligence acts just like us except for pointed ears or one piece uniforms; an advanced race of beings al'la comic books. But it's like asking: "If the oceans have creatures called lobsters then why don't they come to my house?" (Not counting leftovers from Red Lobster restaurants.)
We also don't really know what civilization means if applied to alien life-forms.
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2007 : 12:28:16 [Permalink]
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| True. True. But it's not unreasonable to assume that if the universe is chock full o' beings that some portion of them would be interested in this same question and send out messages like a beacon or something. So while routine communications on a world or even between worlds might be too weak for us to pick up, there ought to be beacons out there. On the other hand can you imagine our civilization as it currently is, socially and politically, putting serious resources towards setting up some kind of powerful beacon? Hardly. We're lucky to spend a tenth of a percent of the national budget on the meager space exploration we do now. Perhaps other intelligent species consider the exercise a waste in one sense or another too. |
-Chaloobi
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| Edited by - chaloobi on 12/20/2007 12:28:59 |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2007 : 12:53:24 [Permalink]
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I disagree Chaloobi,
There may be thousands of folks in our galaxy sending out messages, that doesnt mean were close enough to receive them or that they didnt send them eons ago. There are just too many places to check and too much time. We would have to be exceedingly lucky to happen upon such a message if they were being transmitted. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Past life on Mars? Dunno....... Yet!
