I just read an article. The wording is a bit odd, the title is "Scientists found life on Mars back in the 70s" yet the first paragraph states that life may have been found.
Anyhow, here is the article:
Quote
Scientists found life on Mars back in the 70s
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 23/08/2007
The soil on Mars may indeed be teeming with microbes, according to a new interpretation of data first collected more than 30 years ago.
The search for life on Mars appeared to hit a dead end in 1976 when Viking landers touched down on the red planet and failed to detect biological activity.
There was another flurry of excitement a decade later, when Nasa thought it had found evidence of life in a Mars meteorite but doubts have since been cast on that finding.
Today, Joop Houtkooper from Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen, Germany, will claim the Viking spacecraft may in fact have encountered signs of a weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface.
His analysis of one of the experiments carried out by the Viking spacecraft with a geophysicist, Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University, Pullman, suggests that 0.1 percent of the Martian soil could be of biological origin, he will tell the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany.
That is roughly comparable to biomass levels found in some Antarctic permafrost, home to a range of hardy bacteria and lichen. ?It is interesting because one part per thousand is not a small amount,? Houtkooper said yesterday.
?We will have to find confirmatory evidence and see what kind of microbes these are and whether they are related to terrestrial microbes. It is a possibility that life has been transported from Earth to Mars or vice versa a long time ago.?
The discovery of microbes on Earth that can exist in environments previously thought too hostile has fuelled debate over extraterrestrial life.
Houtkooper believes Mars could be home to just such ?extremophiles? - in this case, microbes whose cells are filled with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water.
Such a mixture would provide at least three clear benefits to organisms in the cold, dry Martian environment.
Its freezing point is as low as -56.5 C (depending on the concentration of peroxide); below that temperature it becomes firm but does not form cell-destroying crystals, as water ice does; and hydrogen peroxide is hygroscopic, which means it attracts water vapour from the atmosphere - a valuable trait on a planet where liquid water is rare.
Houtkooper believes their presence would account for unexplained rises in oxygen and carbon dioxide when NASA?s Viking landers incubated Martian soil.
He bases his calculation of the biomass of Martian soil on the assumption that these gases were produced during the breakdown of organic material.
Hydrogen peroxide is also a powerful oxidant. When released from dying cells, it would sharply lower the amount of organic material in their surroundings.
This would help explain why Viking?s gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer detected no organic compounds on the surface of Mars.
This result has also been questioned recently by Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City University of Mexico, who reported that similar instruments and methodology are unable to detect organic compounds in places on Earth, such as Antarctic dry valleys, where we know soil microorganisms exist.
The twin spacecraft, Viking 1 and Viking II, landed on the Red Planet in 1976. They were equipped with detectors designed to test the Martian soil for evidence of life.
The main instrument, called the TV-GC-MS assay, rapidly heated and vaporised soil for analysis by a spectrometer.
Dr Navarro-Gonzales concluded: ?The fact that no organic molecules were released .. during the analysis of the Mars soils does not demonstrate that there were no organic materials on the surface of Mars..?
?We suggest that the design of future organic instruments for Mars should include other methods to be able to detect extinct and or extant life.?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/23/scimars123.xml
If life was actually found then this is really exciting. If life can be found on 2 planets right next to each other what does that say about life through out the entire universe? The possibilities are amazing.
For all we know, the life on Mars could have already been intelligent as Humans, but wiped out. Ever heard of the head on Mars?
Though that is just largely a theory.
Still, it is a very impressive find, to see that mars was once, well, still is inhabitable.
Next stop, Jupiter roman;
Quote from: Ripster on August 26, 2007, 05:24:57 AM
For all we know, the life on Mars could have already been intelligent as Humans, but wiped out. Ever heard of the head on Mars?
Though that is just largely a theory.
Still, it is a very impressive find, to see that mars was once, well, still is inhabitable.
Next stop, Jupiter roman;
Or a wild possibility is that some martians actually migrated to earth. It'd explain why the "faces" on Mars look so human-like, and why humanity originated from Africa. caterpie;
[spoiler]These responses aren't good enough for Serious. :'([/spoiler]
Quote from: Ripster on August 26, 2007, 05:24:57 AM
Ever heard of the head on Mars?
Ever heard that it's just a hill? psyduck;
p.s. look at the more recent higher-res picture (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Mars_face.png)
Quote from: Lawlz on August 26, 2007, 09:45:54 AM
Or a wild possibility is that some martians actually migrated to earth. It'd explain why the "faces" on Mars look so human-like, and why humanity originated from Africa. caterpie;
[spoiler]These responses aren't good enough for Serious. :'([/spoiler]
I never even thought of that theory.
Quote from: xXTheHaunted on August 27, 2007, 12:24:00 PM
I never even thought of that theory.
You're not as dumb as you seem, then.
Quote from: xXTheHaunted on August 27, 2007, 12:24:00 PM
I never even thought of that theory.
That's because that theory sucks.
Quote from: JMV290 on August 25, 2007, 09:03:57 PM
If life was actually found then this is really exciting. If life can be found on 2 planets right next to each other what does that say about life through out the entire universe? The possibilities are amazing.
you can't think we are the only things out there? But the other lifeforms are in the same perdicament that we are in, there is no way to travel to these other planets.
Quote from: xXTheHaunted on November 22, 2007, 12:40:41 PM
you can't think we are the only things out there? But the other lifeforms are in the same perdicament that we are in, there is no way to travel to these other planets.
Are you reta
rded? psyduck;
I never said that I don't believe life doesn't exist on other planets. It's quite the opposite.
I don't think anyone ever found life. But I heard they found an underground water supply where some life may live or something...
Technically Mars is alive since it orbits around the sun and it contains atmosphere, gas, and solid. It's only missing the liquid which may be buried underneath its layers. >_>
Quote from: bleedingassassin on December 08, 2007, 10:22:43 AM
Technically Mars is alive since it orbits around the sun and it contains atmosphere, gas, and solid.
what
Quote from: bleedingassassin on December 08, 2007, 10:22:43 AM
Technically Mars is alive since it orbits around the sun and it contains atmosphere, gas, and solid. It's only missing the liquid which may be buried underneath its layers. >_>
I don't have an atmosphere, so I must be nonliving.
Known Planets are not alive. Maybe somewhere in another galaxy there is a planet that is made entirely of living cells, but no known planets are alive.
Quote from: JMV290 on December 08, 2007, 01:36:51 PM
Known Planets are not alive. Maybe somewhere in another galaxy there is a planet that is made entirely of living cells, but no known planets are alive.
Mercury is a self-aware space station. Does that count?
Quote from: Commodore Guff on December 08, 2007, 03:38:41 PM
Mercury is a self-aware space station. Does that count?
doez it have liquid underneath it's layers
Really now? This is interesting, I did not know they found evidence of life. This raises the chances of life being in other galaxies significantly. I had always thought that in order for life to survive there needed to be conditions very similar to earth.
Microbes are in fact life. If that's all Mars sports for life, we can still rest peacefully knowing the Earth isn't alone when it comes to life.
Im thinking that maybe just maybe we are the aliens from mars. I know it may sound crazy but what if we were somehow put on earth from our real home planet mars. Now just remember [glow=green,2,300]JUST A POSSIBILITY[/glow]
EDIT: Also the atoms and junk that make up us lifeforms may be different from other planets. there might be different minerals that we dont know about. Thats another possibility
Quote from: kid_rock on January 16, 2008, 02:36:28 PM
Im thinking that maybe just maybe we are the aliens from mars. I know it may sound crazy but what if we were somehow put on earth from our real home planet mars. Now just remember [glow=green,2,300]JUST A POSSIBILITY[/glow]
Don't you think if we came from mars, we would have still retained that technology, or at least some technology that allowed them to get to Earth, rather than being fucking cavemen? Also Lawls aready said that theory.
Quote
EDIT: Also the atoms and junk that make up us lifeforms may be different from other planets. there might be different minerals that we dont know about. Thats another possibility
I just read something about the weather pattern on Venus (it was on Digg) that may have said that the atoms or whatever are unknown.
Proly not.
Mars probably does have microbes. I believe they're called "extremist" or something, but they're microbes that can survive in extreme conditions, such as highly radioactive, hot, cold, etc.
Quote from: Eureka! on January 31, 2009, 02:40:51 PM
Mars probably does have microbes. I believe they're called "extremist" or something, but they're microbes that can survive in extreme conditions, such as highly radioactive, hot, cold, etc.
Extremophiles
could you sum up that article so i dont have to read thew hole thing.
Life on Mars would be hard to come by. It's definitely a less hospitable place than Earth.
First of all, large bodies of water can't exist on Mars. The air pressure isn't high enough there; large bodies of water just boil into glass and rise into the sky. Also, due to the thin atmosphere, there's no ozone to prevent ultraviolet rays from pummeling the surface. There's not enough oxygen for Earth-bound creatures either, and it's a far colder place than Earth.
It's possible to make a thicker atmosphere on Mars through terraforming since many of these gasses are trapped within the glaciers of the planet, but it would be a very very long time before any "large" life could survive on Mars.
Microbes would have similar struggles. During the 1970's scientists took tiny lifeforms and put them in concealed environments meant to simulate Mars. These experiments were called "Mars Jars." A lot of the microbes would die off from ultraviolet, some would die off from the lack of water, some would die off from the temperature, but then there were always some that were able to survive....During the day (Mars has 24 hour days like Earth) the microbes would hide underneath the soil to lessen the blow of the ultraviolet rays, and then from there would strategically make their moves to survive.
It's quite fascinating really. But imagine....If Earth-bound creatures could survive in the Martian terrain, then creatures who evolved on Mars would definitely have an easier time. Honestly though, if there is life on Mars, I say we leave it alone. Let it evolve and grow on it's own. Humans don't need to corrupt another world (although we will, lol).
Quote from: Ch...sh...« on August 04, 2009, 05:55:44 AM
Life on Mars would be hard to come by. It's definitely a less hospitable place than Earth.
Well duh.
I doubt that there is life in our galaxy, but I have nothing to back that up so feel free to prove me wrong.
Quote from: GOB on August 05, 2009, 09:27:10 PM
I doubt that there is life in our galaxy, but I have nothing to back that up so feel free to prove me wrong.
i submit myself as evidence akudood;
Quote from: GOB on August 05, 2009, 09:27:10 PM
Well duh.
I doubt that there is life in our galaxy, but I have nothing to back that up so feel free to prove me wrong.
Our galaxy is a big place brah. I'd say there's plenty of life in our galaxy. Our solar system is unlikely though; although there's still a possibility in places like Europa and such