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Martian Microbe Fossils, Not So Debunked Anymore
rubycodez writes "Three meteorites, including one that has been in a British museum for over a century, are going to be put under the electron microscope and ion microprobe by NASA. We're 'very, very close to proving there is or has been life [on Mars],' said David McKay, chief of astrobiology at Johnson Space Center."
...this topic. Any here on Slashdot?
For example, how did we determine that Allan Hills 84001 came from Mars and not anywhere else? Not even a Mars-like planet in a nearby solar system? How?
How do we know that the signs of life on that rock are from before it was landed, rather than after? I see wikipedia mention that 'some argue', but there's almost no meat on these bones.
There are more questions, but I guess I'm uncomfortable with the word 'prove'. If this were in a court of law, for example, all of this would be 'circumstantial'. There generally needs to be a lot of it, and it needs to be compelling, before this sort of evidence would get a verdict. This leads me to suspect one of these scenarios:
A) There's more detail here. (I'm rooting for this one)
B) The scientific word 'prove' isn't the same as other uses of 'prove' (which would be sad, since they already have their own words - e.g. hypothesis)
Anyway if you either are a third party with sources or someone who actually works with this kind of thing, please do comment below. I'm in the mood to learn something today.
Well I could give a crap about theology. What I want to know is some of the biochemical properties of these organisms. Did they use DNA, RNA or some entirely different set of molecules of protein encoding? Did they share a common ancestor with life on Earth? Is it possible that life had evolved on Earth prior to the collision with the Mars-sized body that produced the Earth, and we have a sort of limited panspermia going on (or maybe it's visa-versa, maybe life began on Mars)? If life was on Mars, is it quite possible as its atmosphere slipped away and its surface became incredibly hostile that somewhere below their surfaces, or perhaps even in deeper valleys and rift zones like Valles Marineris, where atmospheric pressure would be higher and the potential for a more habitable zone might be found?
Of course, this infinitely increases the potential for life elsewhere in the solar system. Europa becomes target #2, and, potentially a far more likely place than Mars to find a complex ecology.
I suppose, in consideration of theology, it depends on who you're asking. Some of the IDers (Michael Behe and his ilk) and Theistic Evolutionists (Catholics tend to this one) will not have any epiphanies. For Old Earth Creationists, it probably won't sway them. But YECs, well, that's a group who has heavily painted themselves into a corner. Now, on top of having to claim the earth is only 6,000 years old, they have to deal gyrations over the age of Mars. They'll probably start by denying all of it, claiming it to be a hoax by evil evilushionists. Then they'll come around to the idea that God planted life there, but no later than 6000 years ago! The people who will change views are the fence sitters at any of these levels.
As for space exploration, well the push for a long-term manned mission to Mars is going to get a major bump. We simply do not have the probes complex enough for more than a bit scouring of the few top inches of Mars' crust. I'm not putting them down, the Mars Landers have been an overwhelming success, but the kind of science any probe sent there, or any probe they're planning to send there, is still pretty limited.
Maybe we should put off any notions of getting humans there in the next two or three decades, and stretch it out to 2050 or 2060, working on self-sustaining long-term bases for humans, so we can send people there for a few years at a time. I'm sure you would have no lack of volunteers among the scientific community.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Rocks may have a greater chance of falling towards the Sun.
But don't discount the Solar Wind. I believe I've read similar discussions that suggest the overall probability is greater for life pushing outward from the Sun due to Solar Wind. We have found microbes very high up in our biosphere. And there tends to be a larger dust trail around Earth.
So dust particles carrying life may get a free ride outwards.