WATER DETECTED ON MARS - LIFE PROBABLE?

I just read that LOS ALAMOS National Laboratory reports that new maps of likely sites of water
on Mars showcase their association with geologic features such as Vallis
Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system.

Read the whole story here:

www.lanl.gov...

What liquid water or just gas?

It was my understanding that the water discovered on Mars was frozen and there was very little of it. Wasn't it said that the deep trenches on Mars were most likely caused by erosion? If this is the case then I am not surprised they found ice.

Well actually there's still fog, and even rarely running water on points on Mars, but still seems to be no life, probably because Mars is missing a few things earth has.

One is a power source, the only electricity on the planet comes from the sand storms which generate Static Electricity but is that enough for life? Are we dependant on the energy we see only in our storms...but here it is present most everywhere. (This is a hypothesis )

Mars also lacks a Magnetic field.

life can never start in Mars unless the water goes back to liquid stage. Mars' polar ice caps will remain frozen unless the elicptical oribit of Mars change drastically

Originally posted by FreeMason
Mars also lacks a Magnetic field.

It does not have any, or is it much less compared to that of Earth?

Is that because of Mars' core being something other than iron?

Well, any liquid water on Mars would be under the surface in "Aquafirs" (sp? ). It is not known for sure wether or not water once flowed freely all over the planet. If that is so, then it MIGHT be possible that algea or other such primitive life forms COULD be alive in the underground aquafirs.

But could there not be some organisms frozen in the ice?
But if we ever did go there, we might be wary of actually melting the ice because it could release a new virus/disease that could be fatal.

Why so much interest in mars anyway?

Ingave, Mars has a few localized "Magnetic Anomalies" as well as a few localized Gravitational Anomalies (Something akin to those mystery spots where you're all sideways )

The Magnetic Anomalies are just something more like I guess where your compass would spin in circles, not really a "field" persay, not a planetary one in anyway at least...

Which may lend veracity to the theory that our liquid core with solid inner core, acts as a giant dynamo to power our massive magnetic field...which is something Mars nearly completely lacks, aside from those few annomalies.

As Mars's Core is believed to have completely frozen solid, even the mantle and crust...though as Dragonrider disputes there is probably a mantle and thus a much thinner crust than originally suspected.

But I follow that mars is indeed more or less a frozen world, as discussing with Dragonrider, would make a lot of since considering the following.

about 60,000 years ago the last of a massive debris field surrounding Mars finished its plumit to mars, cratering it considerably. Leaving behind just two remenants, phobos and deimos.

This debris field suspected, could have originated from a massive impact, like possible against earth, exposing so much of the mantle it killed the furnace within and everything froze up, hence the apparent lack of plate tectonics evident with Olympus Mons.

So due to a lack of current geologic activity, and a thicker atmosphere composing nitrogen (Oxygen is such a lesser concern in the long run )...in fact, I haven't looked up but it's worth noting how much Nitrogen is on mars to begin with.

That and the exposure to deadly UV rays...what there is of Mars's feeble Ozone, is some 10-15 miles up...very thin,

And anyways, it is the magnetic field that spares us from death from the sun, not as much the Ozone, which is just another necessary part. It seems, in our case, we need both...

And the dust storms on mars stir things up too much not for life to not exist in an entire "blanket" on mars.

Meaning if we haven't found any organic organisms by now...there are none.

Unless they are literally in the ice...which is possible as proven in Antarctica...

Anyways, most theories are wrong in some way, I'm sure this hypothesis will be looked at in 1000 years, as no different than the Greeks trying to explain why the Earth is the Center of the Universe, and does not turn, because if the earth rotated we'd all fly off it....and it doesn't move, for the same reasons...we'd be left in "space"...lol

But it's a good theory none the less

Oh also, they don't know much about mars, but they do know a lot more than what is brandied about

Mars did once have oceans, vast oceans even...arguably covering most of the entire planet.

It's all gone now, either in rust, or into the crust, or what larger amounts than present today in the atmosphere have gone into space...and then a lot into some ice...

But as I've said, there is strong evidence of still free flowing water on mars...in form of erosion, although you can't say for certain, that might just be a freak wind erosion.

But several reasons that it doesn't seem to be...one it is a bunch of carved crevases into a hill side, as when you pour water down a hill...and it happens regularly every year.

I am uncertain if they've cought water flowing feely on mars in the act yet...but that is possible.