Possibility of Life On Mars Looking More Remote

Riding with Robots writes "The never-say-die robotic geologist Opportunity continues its extended explorations in Victoria Crater on Mars. The latest findings from the mission suggest that while plenty of water did exist in this location, it was so salty that life would have a very hard time gaining a foothold. 'Not all water is fit to drink,' said Andrew Knoll, a member of the rover science team. 'At first, we focused on acidity, because the environment would have been very acidic. Now, we also appreciate the high salinity of the water when it left behind the minerals Opportunity found. This tightens the noose on the possibility of life.'"

Comments

How is this news??

[neonmonk]

Am I the only who has, for tears, 'known' that there is no life on Mars? I wonder if Captain Obvious has taken the reigns over at NASA.

Still, there's some consolation in the fact that the biggest red state has no sign of life.

Re:How is this news??

[Xtravar]

Exactly. The Flying Spaghetti Monster is on your side.

Re:Please Stop already....

[antirelic]

Its rather retarded to think the our planet hosts the only life that has ever existed or will exist. Show me something to the contrary. Link?

Especially if you are not religious. While the requirements and conditions must be almost perfect for life to form as we know it, You know life as something else? Care to share something everyone else is missing? Or are you going from sci-fi imagination or some stretched out speculation?

there are for all intents and purposes, infinate possiblities for such a thing to occur in the universe due to the shear size and mass available in it. Stop it. You call me retarded and your calling the universe INFINITE (not infinate) and it is not.

While the odds are that it will probably have some sort of mostly random distribution across the universe, statistics and odds are just that. They aren't facts, and the possiblity that it existed/exists in our own back yard is there. What is the possibility? How is this possibility generated? These possibilities you speak of, are infinitesimally small...

And ... we can actually look there, so doing so isn't a bad idea. Right, we looked there, for YEARS AND YEARS. We have robots on the ground for YEARS. Nothing. You cannot compare mars to earth. Its not like saying "well maybe we just landed them in a desert..." and use that as an excuse to why they arent finding anything. WE SEE MARS CLEARLY. The spots were picked carefully for the rovers. There IS NO LIFE. Just move on...

It is also rather retarded to think that because life formed on Earth as a carbon based organism that anything anywhere else in the universe will have done it the same way. Its extremely short sited to say 'life won't exist on Mars because no Earth based life form could live there'. Its also retarded to base your argument on a conclusion that I never made. I never said "theres no life on mars because earth life cant exist there." I said "STOP IT". Its a dead rock in space that we have spent alot of time "looking for life on". For crying out loud, if your going to call me a retard at least attack my argument and not some argument that your making up in your own head....

Even on Earth we still find life that survives in places we never thought possible... and all of the sudden we find it and say 'holy crap, how the hell is it doing that?!' And then we figure it out that life doesn't have to work by the narrow little rules we have defined for it. Ok. Still arguing against an argument that I didnt even present... never the less.. please show link to where you see life not going by the fundamental rules, even the extremophiles.

Life is, after all, just one big serious of chemical reactions, so ... okay ... our types of chemical reactions can't occur on Mars ... it doesn't have to be the same type of chemical reaction! Or ... for that matter a chemical reaction. Could end up being that we are rare, cause the rest of the life forms in the universe are electrical reactions, or magnetic, or nuclear. Its just plain stupid to think we understand or know about all forms of life. What these scientists are looking for is mostly life forms like us, but also just signs of life in general in the hopes that if its not like us, they may discover some other form.

You sir, are too close minded to be a scientist. Sir, you are too far deranged, arguing against an argument that was never made in the first place, to be a turnip.

Re:Dead Sea

[Anonymous Coward]

...and yet they all have something living in them don't they.???? HMMM??? These same people said nothing lives in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Fucking cock-suckers just fresh out of school or on some corporation-paid mouth spewing rampage. "I've been a doing this job for 2 years and I know everything about space and beyond. Of course I was wrong about my last theory but you should believe me 100% of the time from now on." The same people that believe this shit instantly believe in Global Warming. Yes I did capitalize it and yes it really is only a "CAUSE", a money hungry cause. I for one will not stand by and let this world be run by a bunch of greedy bastards on a fucking rampage. And anyone that thinks we don't pay enough taxes I'm waiting for you to sign an additional personal check over to the government(pick your fucking country in the world). Seriously if you even say anything like that I want to a signed and cashed image of the check on a webpage. Otherwise you're just spewing the same drivel. FU liberal cock-suckers.

mod u5p

[Anonymous Coward]

OpenBSD leader Theo flaws in the BSD Me if you'd like, Join GNAA (GAY took precxedence empire in decline,