New Clue for Life on Mars?

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Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday September 20, 2004 @05:47AM from the but-i-wouldn't-wanna-live-there dept.

thhamm writes "Recent analyses of ESA's Mars Express data reveal that concentrations of water vapour and methane in the atmosphere of Mars significantly overlap. This result, from data obtained by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), gives a boost to understanding of geological and atmospheric processes on Mars, and provides important new hints to evaluate the hypothesis of present life on the Red Planet."

14 of 192 comments (clear)

It's probably... by ackthpt · 2004-09-20 05:49 · Score: 5, Funny

It's probably a bug that once exposed to humanity will wipe it out.
all but the 5th planet are yours, oh, you might want to avoid that nasty 4th planet, too..

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Fantastic! by cephyn · 2004-09-20 05:50 · Score: 5, Interesting

It's really awesome, and really amazing, that as we study Mars more, the evidence suggests more and more that life is possible. In other words, the body of evidence isn't ruling life out even as we gather more evidence. It's STILL premature to assume this is life-generated, but its another awesome piece of support for the increased possibility of life.

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Moo.
1. Re:Fantastic! by CodeWanker · 2004-09-20 06:04 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I read the article. It seems to me that they would get the same results from comet impacts slowly melting/evaporating in the equatorial regions, too.
  
  I really hope life is there, but nothing short of shipping a bunch of naked apes with petri dishes, nutrients, and microscopes will resolve it.
  
  --
  
  "Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
2. Re:Fantastic! by cephyn · 2004-09-20 06:12 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  the more evidence you gather that can be explained best by life, the more probable it is. Occam's Razor and all that.
  
  Why do you find this to be insignificant data? It's really interesting regardless of the implications for life...why are the water vapor concentrations highest around the methane concentrations? Any way you look at it, its an important mystery to be solved.
  
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  Moo.
Water!! by allden · 2004-09-20 05:51 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why the assumption that life can't evolve without water??
1. Re:Water!! by Nos. · 2004-09-20 05:55 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  This is actually a fairly common viewpoint. And its a common way of limiting your viewpoint based on previous experience. Life must be carbon based, requires oxygen and water to survive. (I think there may be silicon life on earth near deep ocean vents, but I can't remember). Most people do this in there every day lives. Make assumptions based on the experiences they have lived through. Remeber the Earth was flat because it looked that way. The Sun orbits the Earth because it looks that way.
2. Re:Water!! by stratjakt · 2004-09-20 05:58 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Noone assumed life can't evolve without water.
  
  It's just that life as we know it evolved with water.
  
  The only type of life we could hope to positively detect and identify would be life as we know it.
  
  It's possible there's life made out of magical moonbeams and fairy farts but unless you've engineered a gizmometer to test for it, it's hopeless.
  
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  I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
3. Re:Water!! by jericho4.0 · 2004-09-20 06:05 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  This page has a look at some of the reasons why. Basicly, no (known) combonation of a common element, a solvent, and temperature range display the chemical flexibility of H20 + C + (0 - 100 degrees).
  Of course, life could probably exist in a totally different paradigm, but it's kind of hard to design space probes or experiments to test for the unknown.
  
  --
  "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
4. Re:Water!! by The+Only+Druid · 2004-09-20 06:11 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I'm pretty postive that there is no verified example of silicon based life. Rather, due to the chemical similarities between carbon and silicon it is speculated that life (as we know it) could have or could in the future evolve based on silicon rather than carbon.
  
  This is not a limitation of the viewpoint, but rather an acknowledgement of our intrinsically limited conception of life: life which we will recognize as being life must have certain characteristics to differentiate from..."not life", and it those characteristics hinge on certain chemical processes.
  
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  "Stumble before you crawl"
Tens of centimeters? by Nos. · 2004-09-20 05:52 · Score: 5, Interesting

They used the phrases "tens of centimeters" and "tens of degrees celsius". I really hate these terms, especially in what should be a scientific article. This could mean anywhere from 20-100 (or more) which is a pretty broad range. Would it be so difficult to say 20-50 (or whatever the measurements are) which would give a much more accurate picture?
Easiest way to settle the question definitively: by physicsphairy · 2004-09-20 05:53 · Score: 5, Insightful

Put life on mars.

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When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
hrm. by anzha · 2004-09-20 05:55 · Score: 5, Interesting

It just seems that there are some spots that might be a little warmer than others, or so goes the hypothesis as I understand it, from geothermal sources. It seems like a little bit of a stretch to link it directly with life on Mars. Perhaps this gives some ideas where to look for life on Mars, but the article itself doesn't seem to make much in the way for claims about Martian life.
Am I reading this wrong?
If I am not, does every discovery about Mars need to really be linked to life for it to be fascinating? Or does the press feel that's the need these days?

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Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
Re: silly h00mans by Black+Parrot · 2004-09-20 06:18 · Score: 5, Funny

> The martians have your rover in a containment unit that makes you humans think that you're exploring their world!

And the funny part is that the containment unit is in Arizona!

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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Earth Evidence for Mars life by RumorControl · 2004-09-20 06:53 · Score: 5, Interesting

There is already evidence of life in extreme conditions on earth. Our biosphere extends from as deep as we can measure to space. There is evidence that life can sustain radiation that would kill a city.
To look at a rock in space and say, " I doubt there is life there" is to ignore the fact that we have yet to find a place where life can't exist (maybe the sun...). In essence, if there is energy, then there exists the potential for something to exploit that energy. And more often the not, something does.
The question should be "What is living on this rock, and why can't I find it?"