New Hope for Life on Mars

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Posted by michael on Thursday February 20, 2003 @01:24AM from the once-upon-a-time dept.

Peter_Pork writes "New images sent back by NASA's Mars Odyssey have prompted an interesting theory about Martian gullies, as reported today by Washington Post and New Scientist. Odyssey's images show snow accumulations near the gullies, suggesting that the gullies were formed by melted snow. Scientists have developed a new weather model based on 100,000-year cycles in which snow first accumulates in highlands and it is then melted by the action of the sun. Liquid water, protected from evaporation by a superficial layer of snow, would carve the gullies in a few thousand years. This idea gives further hope to the search of life forms in Mars, since liquid water is suitable for sustaining life. Upcoming landings (three in the next two years) should shed more light on the question, but they will most likely not land in the rocky areas where this phenomenon occurs."

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Contamination of Mars et at. with terrestrial life by DocSnyder · 2003-02-20 01:41 · Score: 3, Interesting

I'm sure they will discover life on Mars in the near future - and discover later that they brought it themselves with their space vehicle. Some microbes are strong enough to survive the space trip and settle on even hostile environments, of which Mars would surely be good enough.
New life on Mars? by uncoveror · 2003-02-20 01:44 · Score: 2, Funny

New life on Mars? Only if the old life on Mars, the Zhti Ti Kofft decide to tolerate newcomers. They have been very unfriendly, historically.

--
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
And... by edwilli · 2003-02-20 02:22 · Score: 2, Insightful

What are opinions on why it's so important? What would life on mars, or evidence of past life on Mars tell us?
1. Re:And... by C21 · 2003-02-20 03:08 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  that it is that much easier to establish ourselves on the planet. If life, of any kind can sustain itself, well then we can work off of that as a platform.
  
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  this is not a sig.
2. Re:And... by DoraLives · 2003-02-20 03:50 · Score: 2, Flamebait
  
  For one thing, it would play fits with certain religious fundamentalist creationist dogma, and therefore the religious dogma itself. Nothing in the holy handbooks about life anywhere else except here.
  I'm hoping for dayglow green with large fangs and slimy tentacles, but I'll settle for a little bacteria-looking stuff.
  Most anything at all actually, just so long as it takes some of the hot air out of the fundamentalist's (pick your less than fully sane belief system of choice) sails.
  
  --
  Is it fascism yet?
3. Re:And... by Timesprout · 2003-02-20 03:57 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If we find life next door to us then given the vastness of the universe the probability of life, perhaps even sentient life increases (ignoring the fact that its likely we contaminated mars or vise versa). It would be a huge shot in the arm for continuing space explortion.
  
  --
  Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
  What truth?
  There is no dupe
4. Re:And... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-20 04:12 · Score: 0
  
  Nothing in the holy handbooks about life anywhere else except here.
  
  But nothing specifically denying life anywhere else but here either. It wouldn't necessarily change the "holy handbooks" ... only the flawed interpretations by some people who take it to mean that if it isn't mentioned it must not be so.
  
  If I say "I ate pizza yesterday" - it doesn't mean I didn't also eat an apple. I just wasn't telling you about the apple. You might incorrectly interpret it to mean "I only ate pizza yesterday" but that's your problem, not mine.
5. Re:And... by 56ksucks · 2003-02-20 06:52 · Score: 0
  
  Amen.
  
  --
  ---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"
6. Re:And... by Alsee · 2003-02-20 07:08 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Nothing in the holy handbooks about life anywhere else except here.
  
  That depends which holy handbook you check.
  
  -
  
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  - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
7. Re:And... by Daniel+Dvorkin · 2003-02-20 07:36 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Who the hell knows?
  
  Some knowledge is immediately, obviously useful. Some isn't useful at the time it's acquired, but turns out to be immensely useful later on. Some is never useful ... except in the sense that knowledge is always useful; the ability to gather and pass on knowledge is, as far as we know, one of our defining characteristics as a species.
  
  People want to know if there is or was life on Mars because that would be an amazingly cool piece of knowledge. If you don't understand that ... well, I can't help you.
  
  --
  The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
8. Re:And... by pmz · 2003-02-20 10:00 · Score: 1
  
  Nothing in the holy handbooks about life anywhere else except here.
  
  I saw a very interesting show on the History Channel (IIRC), where several theologians made the case that the whole Bible is about extra-terrestrials influencing mankind. It was actually more compelling than I would have thought.
  
  Their claims: aliens gave Moses the ten commandments, the Jews followed alien guides in the sky for their years of wandering, the aliens provided them with their 'manna', the aliens got them across the Red Sea, the aliens destroyed Sodom for unknown reasons, etc. It boiled down to a story about an alien race that, for some reason, wanted to give us Religion, or at least we interpreted it as Religion when it may have been just a helping hand.
  
  Wasn't it Arthur C. Clark who said, essentially, that any sufficiently advanced technology would appear to be from God or at least appear to be magic?
  
  --
  Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
9. Re:And... by .sig · 2003-02-20 10:37 · Score: 1
  
  Your sig is so appropriate here...
  I don't remember the name of it, but one of his [Clark] short stories hints at just this, and is basically about what happens when the aliens return.
  
  (I read that story wondering why the aliens never let people see their true forms, until at the end their 'demonic' appearance is revealed.)
  
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  -Space for rent
10. Re:And... by burns210 · 2003-02-20 12:00 · Score: 1
  
  why is the parent modded up on such an obvious question? well, i will answer it anyway...
  "What would life on mars...tell us?"
  That we are not alone in the Universe.
11. Re:And... by JabberWokky · 2003-02-20 12:47 · Score: 1
  
  Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.
  --
  Evan
  
  --
  "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
12. Re:And... by g4dget · 2003-02-20 19:37 · Score: 1
  
  If finding things like this, or the fact that there are more suns in the universe than grains of sands on earth, doesn't convince religious fundamentalists of evolution, do you think that the discovery of a bunch of microorganisms will convince them?
Re:Contamination of Mars et at. with terrestrial l by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-20 02:43 · Score: 3, Interesting

Where do you think life on Earth came from?? Don't suppose from the bacteria on a satelite from somebody else??
What would it tell us? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-20 03:01 · Score: 2, Interesting

That life can evolve on planets other than our own?
Stop your beer/pizza/TV routine and open your eyes by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-20 04:01 · Score: 0

We live in a universe of sterile material. Stuff would aggregate into stars and planets, but having little critters evolve on one of these balls of raw stuff wasn't expected or anything. Life on Earth might be the most fantastic phenomenon to ever happen in the Universe, and any minute information about life elsewhere is to be cherished like hot chocolate on a cold winter night.
Re:Contamination of Mars et at. with terrestrial l by Christopher+Thomas · 2003-02-20 10:44 · Score: 2, Informative

I'm sure they will discover life on Mars in the near future - and discover later that they brought it themselves with their space vehicle.

All Mars craft to date have been sterilized to prevent exactly this kind of contamination.
great spring skiing by g4dget · 2003-02-20 19:56 · Score: 1

This means great spring skiing conditions on Mars. Just bring your breathing mask and some warm clothing.
Wasn't that an "Outer Limits" episode? by candylilacs · 2003-02-24 12:18 · Score: 1

It just sounds so....familiar.

c.
Re:Contamination of Mars et at. with terrestrial l by taphu · 2003-02-26 03:57 · Score: 1

Nevertheless, past life on mars (i.e. dead and something we haven't seen before) should be easily distinguished from anything we bring with us (i.e. living and, for some reason, vaguely familiar).