Life on Mars?

I just found this article: www.msnbc.msn.com...

No proof yet, but it seems there's a very good chance of life on Mars, currently existing under the surface.

I think that's very good news...possibly.

Life on Mars? No. Life on any other planet or moon in our solar system? No. Life on other planets in other galaxies in other parts of the universe? I'm sure of it.

Perhaps not intelligent life, even...but I'm really starting to think there might be plants or bacteria on Mars.

And I strongly believe there's intelligent life somewhere else (then again, there's not intelligent life on earth, either, so maybe I'm wrong).

This is the same thing Bill Hamilton just sent me earlier today in an email...

Originally posted by meshuggah1324
This is the same thing Bill Hamilton just sent me earlier today in an email...

You're right...the msnbc link is the same thing covered in your thread here...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Zabilgy
Life on Mars? No. Life on any other planet or moon in our solar system? No. Life on other planets in other galaxies in other parts of the universe? I'm sure of it.

I can understand the doubt you or anyone may have, but to be "sure of it" is pretty bold and somewhat ignorrant of the facts and evidence provided by far greater scientific minds. But, I'd love to hear you reasons for being "sure of it"

I'm sure of it, because any other answer doesn't make sense. If the universe is infinite and there are an infinite amount of galaxies out there, there HAS to be other planets at the right distance from a sun to have caused life to begin, just like Earth. To believe otherwise seems completely egocentric and unrealistic. I look at it logically. And logic says it's a definite must.

I'm with Zabilgy space is infinite so there must be other life.

I'm not so convinced about the space being infinite theory (if it was infinite, wouldn't there be a star at every point in the sky, therfeore space would look white?)...anyway I feel it just comes down to probability - when you consider there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on this planet, its logical as you say, that at least one solar system (probably a lot more) will have a planet at the right distance from its sun to breed life.

Does all life neccessarily need a heat source anyway? We probably don't know that much about how life starts to know this for sure. I feel there is a heck of a lot more for us to discover as a race. We have only been exploring space for the past 50 years or so and already we may have life on Mars, our next-door-neighbours in terms of planets! What will we have found in 100, 500, 10000 years from now!?

[edit on 16/2/05 by jimi]

As far as the being sure of it, I remember a couple of articles published recently where scientists were wondering why we hadn't already made contact with other races. We keep finding planets now to the point that planetary systems seem to be quite common, so why would life occuring elsewhere be a shock to anyone?

Originally posted by Zabilgy
Life on Mars? No. Life on any other planet or moon in our solar system? No. Life on other planets in other galaxies in other parts of the universe? I'm sure of it.

There could very well be life on mars and other planets in our solar system...even if they arent even visable to the naked eye, there could still be living organisms.

To quote Douglas Adams:

The Universe - some information to help you live in it.

1. AREA: Infinite.

[snippety]

4. POPULATION: None

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a derranged imagination.

From The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

So, there's no other life out there.

Seriously, though, given the infinite possibility in an infinite Universe, there is bound to be other planets with intelligent life out there, and more yet with undeveloped life.

As far as life on Mars, it's possible. Just a few years ago we found an asteroid from Mars on Earth which contained fossils of bacteria very similar to bacteria known to exist on this planet (in fact, this actually created a debate as to whether or not life on Earth orginally started on Mars).

Given the robustness of life, and some of the extremely hostile conditions it exists in on this planet, there's nothing prohibiting some form of life from existing on Mars. In fact, there was an expedition a year or two ago to a remote part of (I think) Austrailia (if anyone else is familliar with this expedition, please correct me if I'm wrong), which was known to be the harshest and driest climate on Earth, with conditions similar to those believed to be on Mars. Even in this remote "lifeless" climate, some forms of life were found to exist.

I don't believe that we're going to find Marvin the Martian on Mars, however, it's a very real possibility that we do find some manner of microbial, plant, or primitive animal life on Mars. It's known that life can survive there, and it's likely that some form of life once existed there. All that's to be determined yet is if there still is life there.

i think we need to think "outside the box" here.....how do we know that a heat source is needed for certain forms of life on other worlds? in all honesty, i think humans are extremely arrogant to even imply that we are "all knowing".....we truly know nothing -- at least the general public knows nothing.

just because life on earth is formed and maintained in a certain way, doesn't mean all life in the universe follows the same evolutionary path......

The other day in Biology I learned that the reason Mars is red is because of oxidization. Huge amounts of oxygen would be required for this to occur and the most likely reason is photosynthesis, and thus life on Mars. If this were true I thought it would have gained as much attention as water on Mars. Peace

I'm not so convinced about the space being infinite theory (if it was infinite, wouldn't there be a star at every point in the sky, therfeore space would look white?)

The sky wouldn't be white for the same reason why some stars are brighter than others; distance. There can be an infinite number of stars out there, but if they're too far away, we won't know they exist.

Anyway, damn bacteria. I'm sure it's everywhere. On Mars? Most likely.