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Test Equipment Finds Life In Mars-like Conditions

Posted by samzenpus on from the germs-are-everywhere dept.

DIY News writes "In a test of equipment that might one day be used to search for biological activity on Mars, researchers discovered life tucked deep inside a frozen Norwegian volcano, a test region said to have geology similar to that of Mars. The test instruments discovered a rare and complex microbial community living in blue ice vents inside a frozen volcano, which is the kind of evidence scientists have been searching for on the Red Planet."

10 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Cool. by Capt'n+Hector · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now the question is not whether Mars can support life, it is whether or not Mars could have supported its abiogenesis and subsequent evolution.

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    1. Re:Cool. by hostyle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I was thinking the same thing. Unless these life-forms evolved completely independent of other similar life-forms on earth, there is practically no corellation between life on earth (albeit at similar temperatures / conditions) and life on another planet. Earth-evolved life surviving on another planet might well be possible, but life beginning there is something else entirely.

      --
      Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
    2. Re:Cool. by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, we now know that Norway can support life, so why not Mars ?

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  2. Re:This may sound dumb by Lucractius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    because if you build a fancy machine and dont test it before you actualy get there, What happens when it doesnt work, you dont know if thats actualy a real reliable reading. It doesnt make any sence to send untested equipment millions of miles to search for something when you dont even know if it can find it at all.

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  3. Mistake? by SolitaryMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder, is there a possibility of not identifying Mars' living things as form of life, just because it is very different from ours? How do one check, whether the thing is alive or not?

    --
    May Peace Prevail On Earth
    1. Re:Mistake? by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've always thought that it was the height of human arrogance to presume that life on other worlds would be recognizable to us as "life" at all. There may be life on the moon for all we know. We assume certain organic forms, but why? Our experience with the world beyond earth is infinitesimal; how can we assume anything? what if there is life that doesn't exist as bacteria, as flora and fauna, as little green men, etc. Life elsewhere might be made of substances and energies that we don't even know exist. Evolution here took place in a particular context and environment -- who's to say what could happen in other environments? When it comes down to it, there is a whole lot we don't even know about life here on earth -- how can we assume that our assumptions about life here will have any relevance on other worlds?

  4. The detail is amazing by ReformedExCon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While this is amazing proof of life on Earth, unfortunately it is not proof of life on Mars.

    These Earth-borne creatures are red because of the propensity of life on Earth to use iron as a key component in blood. I would expect that Martian creatures would have copper coursing through their veins.

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    Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
  5. I gotta ask.. by xx01dk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What would it mean if we discovered microbial life on another planet? Honestly. What would it mean. One, it would mean that the posibilty of life is not that uncommon. Life prevails under the harshest of circumstances here on Earth. Why not elsewhere?

    Two, if it does exist elsewhere, then what's so special about our planet?

    Three, what's stopping it from evolving beyond the microbial stage? It opens the floodgates on "what is possible" in this universe.

    I for one, welcome.... nm. I'm interested to know if mankind as a whole is ready to comprehend the fact that life is not indigenous to Earth...

    --
    There is simply too much glass..
  6. not that easy ! by alarch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    high school buiology is oversimplified and to large extent obsolete. imagine a simple electronic thingie which can respond to stimuli (my computer can do that), but is it alive? imagine a robotic factory programmed to replicate itself - is it alive just because it replicates itself and not cars or whatever? i think not. defining life is not that easy consciousness may be? but i am one of those that are sure that animals have "souls" and are consciouss as well as plants and may be even bacteria... but... we cannot mesure level of consciousness

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    Deliriant isti Americani.
  7. Question is whether we choose to add life to Mars by fantomas · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You ask a very good question: but surely the findings of this research raise another question: if Mars-like conditions (therefore Mars itself) can support life, should we be importing life to Mars?

    Long term colonisation of Mars would require locally grown food, and preferably not at the expense of shipping in from Earth all the resources they need to grow. Is this a step towards finding hardy life forms that can be mutated to grow in Mars, or in a hybrid Mars-Earth condition? (ie. giving plants some support but not having to create Earth conditions). Hence making the possibility of long term missions to Mars more achievable...