The Mars Thread

[Lupine]

More signs of life on Mars.
I wonder what it will take (besides an obvious fossil or living cell) to conclusively prove Mars once had life?

[RJDiogenes]

It would definitely have to be unambiguous, like a fossil or cell, to be totally convincing-- and even that probably won't convince some people. I can't argue with that, because there should be no margin for error with something that important. Personally, at this point, I'm at least 90% convinced that there are currently living things on Mars, especially after reading a re-evaluation of the data from the 70s-- and about 99% convinced that there at least used to be. But I'm waiting for that smoking ray gun.

[Lupine]

Yeah, considering that we have the presence of limonite, methane, and now carbon 12 I'd be gobsmacked if there wasn't something there past or present.

[scottydog]

What if we discover a planet inhabited by billions of people who look and act like The Three Stooges? Would we embrace such a planet, or would we quarantine it and set out buoys in space warning people to stay away?

[Lupine]

[RJDiogenes]

We could send Marvin after them.

[scottydog]

I'm sensing some intolerant anti-stoogism here

[RJDiogenes]

Their home planet is a very dangerous place. Because of their invulnerability, they have no reason to refrain from violence, so normal humans would be at risk.

[Lupine]

An actual alien crash site on Mars!*



*but here we're the aliens.

[RJDiogenes]

Fantastic. There's no sense of scale, so I first saw it as the size of the saucer in Forbidden Planet.

[Lupine]

Apparently Perseverance has found "organic matter" on Mars.
The article is a little vague on just what the "organic matter" is beyond saying that they are "aromatics" or "stable molecules".

[RJDiogenes]

Ah, I meant to post about this yesterday. My NASA app beeped me, so I was able to watch most of it. Contrary to the article, the speakers all went to great pains to explain what organic matter is and that it's not alive and not evidence of present life, and only possibly evidence of ancient life, but there are other possible explanations for it. They went on and on so much that I started to think they were protesting too much.

They also talked about the longevity of the rover and the helicopter. They expect one or both to survive the Winter-- I forget exactly what they said, but it was good news.

And on the lighter side, the woman who was hosting the event-- I missed the beginning so I don't know what her job is-- acted like a game show host or something. She cracked me up.

[Lupine]

Water may have flowed on Mars as recently 400,000 years ago!
I have thought that some of the water erosion seen looked more recent than the billions of years assumed. Doesn't mean that Tharks were roaming around but it does open up the possibility of existing microbial life and that Mars's history if far more dynamic than thought.

[RJDiogenes]

That's great to see more encouraging news. Pretty much everything they see and learn points to conditions amenable to life-- and that recently there was multicellular life on Earth, so it's even possible that there were Martian Hallucigenia or something.