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Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
Nasa says its Mars rover Spirit has discovered "the best evidence yet" of a past habitable environment on the planet's surface.
Spirit has been exploring a plateau called Home Plate, where it discovered silica-rich soil in May.
Researchers are now trying to determine what produced the patch of nearly pure silica - the main ingredient of window glass.
They believe the deposits came from an ancient hot-spring environment or an environment called a fumarole, in which acidic steam rises through cracks.
On Earth, both of these types of settings teem with microbial life, said rover chief scientist Steve Squyres.
"Whichever of those conditions produced it, this concentration of silica is probably the most significant discovery by Spirit for revealing a habitable niche that existed on Mars in the past," he said.
"The evidence is pointing most strongly toward fumarolic conditions, like you might see in Hawaii and in Iceland.
"Compared with deposits formed at hot springs, we know less about how well fumarolic deposits can preserve microbial fossils. That's something needing more study here on Earth."
Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity have remained on Mars for much longer than originally planned.
Their mission has been extended five times since they landed on opposite sides of the planet in January 2004.
But the rovers faced their biggest challenge yet this summer, when a series of dust devils blanketed their solar panels and limited their movement.
Winds managed to clean off Opportunity, but Spirit is still covered in gunk and working at 42 per cent capacity.
Scientists said Spirit was now facing a face against time to reach a resting spot for winter.
"Spirit is going into the winter with much more dust on its solar panels than in previous years," said Nasa's John Callas, project manager for the rovers.
"The last Martian winter, we didn't move Spirit for about seven months. This time, the rover is likely to be stationary longer and with significantly lower available energy each Martian day."
Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
Its time to send more high tech probes to Mars and finally get the answer: Does(did) life exist elsewhere in the Solar System?? We know that it probably exists on a couple moons in the Saturn and Jupiter moon systems, but another mission to Mars is more feasible. The conditions on those moons is hideous.
If they can find this just digging a couple inches into the martian soil, God only knows what they would find if they dug 10 feet.
Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
I always wanted to see a mission check out this place:
NASA has tried to discredit that photo for years, but it didn't really work. Its the most infamous photo taken of Mars. Not just "the face" should be looked at, but that whole radius around it where there are objects resembling pyramids and other structures.
Life existed there at some point. Maybe even now. Its barely even open to debate. They already know that it has a history a bit similar to Earth, but something went wrong in its past. The only question is what kind of life. Just microbes, or did it advance to animals or even something resembling mankind?
They have to find the answer, and not cover it up. Mankind is at the point in its evolution where we can accept the fact that life exists in other places.
Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
polluxlm wrote:I always wanted to see a mission check out this place:
NASA has tried to discredit that photo for years, but it didn't really work. Its the most infamous photo taken of Mars. Not just "the face" should be looked at, but that whole radius around it where there are objects resembling pyramids and other structures.
Life existed there at some point. Maybe even now. Its barely even open to debate. They already know that it has a history a bit similar to Earth, but something went wrong in its past. The only question is what kind of life. Just microbes, or did it advance to animals or even something resembling mankind?
They have to find the answer, and not cover it up. Mankind is at the point in its evolution where we can accept the fact that life exists in other places.
The evidence of a possible ancient civilization is definitely there. Some think that's where we came from, but I'm not too strong a believer in that. Although, I read once that white people apparently got an inner clock which corresponds to the orbit of Mars, while all other races correspond to the Earth. I won't claim this for sure, but it's sure an interesting theory.
Like I've said before, the ancient texts talk much about horrific events taking place on earth. Scientists agree, although not on the reasons. Perhaps the extinction of Mars was one of these reasons? Hard to say for sure.
An honest expedition(s) to some of the more interesting looking landscape should be the obvious goal. Still they fuck around with these sand samples. Not that that isn't important, but clearly there are other places that should be explored, with our tax money.
Btw, check out my 'Black Knight' thread. Possibly related.
Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
Nasa says its Mars rover Spirit has discovered "the best evidence yet" of a past habitable environment on the planet's surface.
Spirit has been exploring a plateau called Home Plate, where it discovered silica-rich soil in May.
Researchers are now trying to determine what produced the patch of nearly pure silica - the main ingredient of window glass.
They believe the deposits came from an ancient hot-spring environment or an environment called a fumarole, in which acidic steam rises through cracks.
On Earth, both of these types of settings teem with microbial life, said rover chief scientist Steve Squyres.
"Whichever of those conditions produced it, this concentration of silica is probably the most significant discovery by Spirit for revealing a habitable niche that existed on Mars in the past," he said.
"The evidence is pointing most strongly toward fumarolic conditions, like you might see in Hawaii and in Iceland.
"Compared with deposits formed at hot springs, we know less about how well fumarolic deposits can preserve microbial fossils. That's something needing more study here on Earth."
Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity have remained on Mars for much longer than originally planned.
Their mission has been extended five times since they landed on opposite sides of the planet in January 2004.
But the rovers faced their biggest challenge yet this summer, when a series of dust devils blanketed their solar panels and limited their movement.
Winds managed to clean off Opportunity, but Spirit is still covered in gunk and working at 42 per cent capacity.
Scientists said Spirit was now facing a face against time to reach a resting spot for winter.
"Spirit is going into the winter with much more dust on its solar panels than in previous years," said Nasa's John Callas, project manager for the rovers.
"The last Martian winter, we didn't move Spirit for about seven months. This time, the rover is likely to be stationary longer and with significantly lower available energy each Martian day."
Whenever I hear about this sort of stuff it reminds me of Michael Crichton's "The Andromeda Strain"...and it scares the shit out of me.
Anyone here ever read it? Its about a satellite that comes back down to earth carrying microscopic organisms (ie diseases) from space. Needless to say it causes alot of problems with disease.
Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
Yeah, that is Crichton's best book.
I wonder about contamination like that as well. Like when they had that probe catch some of the Sun's rays in space and they brought it back. That shit had never touched the earth before, and the damn probe crashed.
They are also bringing back samples from a comet in a few years. That will be interesting.
Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
Yeah, that is Crichton's best book.
Never seen the movie... 
This stuff kind of reminds when there was that stuff about finding Pyramids on one of Jupiters Moons under Ice... 
All this stuff is really interesting, just a pitty it seems we won't live long enough to know even some of the answers.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
Shit, that's just a ripoff of Planet of The Apes. The space virus killed all our pets so we turned to the Apes. Nothing original there.
- BurningHills
- Rep: 15
Re: Mars rover finds signs of microbial life
I think it's pretty obvious that life once existed on Mars in some capacity.
There's still more intelligent life out there somewhere - and I have faith that we'll find it someday.
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