A question to you all....

If Mars had an atmoshpere say 10,000 years + ago, and the atmoshpere evaporated, wouldn't the people/any life have incinerated to dust right on the spot? This means that it'd be very difficult to find any evidence of prior life existing on the planet, Wouldn't it? Maybe I am wrong, but this is why I posed the question.

I don't know if this was the right place to post this. MODS feel free to move it if there's a better place for it.

reply to post by ldyserenity


No, I think if life existed on Mars then there should be fossil evidence of that under the surface.

reply to post by ldyserenity


It matters how Mars lost it's atmosphere. If it was just a gradual loss no incineration.

reply to post by ldyserenity


I'd expect dessicated remains if an atmosphere loss was that quickly catastrophic.

Maybe if we go back millions of years? 10,000 isn't a long time on a planetary scale.

reply to post by ldyserenity


fossils buried under the surface tend to ignore such things. We also have remnants of buildings from long ago, one could fathom that there'd be at least something of them left.

reply to post by CoffinFeeder


Not if the event that caused Mars to lose it's atmosphere was violent enough. Like the theory that it lost it after the major impact that caused the major scarring over half of Mar's globe.

In my opinion we have only had very limited access to limited places on the surface of the planet, although NASA may and probably does know more than we do. If another civilisation was to land a probe in a desert, they may come to the conclusion that there is and never has been life on that planet, because there is not a lot to see in the middle of the desert, but as we know we have an abundance of life here on earth, so how do we know there isn't still life on Mars but they are keeping it from us. They have lied about so many things in the past, so its a little difficult to even accept that there is no sustainable atmosphere on the planet as well. Just a thought. :0)

Originally posted by Seiko
reply to post by ldyserenity

 

I'd expect dessicated remains if an atmosphere loss was that quickly catastrophic.

Maybe if we go back millions of years? 10,000 isn't a long time on a planetary scale.

That makes sense, probably like at least a million years, huh? I don't know, I mean how long does it really take to completely wipe out all evidence of existence?

Originally posted by neo5842
In my opinion we have only had very limited access to limited places on the surface of the planet, although NASA may and probably does know more than we do. If another civilisation was to land a probe in a desert, they may come to the conclusion that there is and never has been life on that planet, because there is not a lot to see in the middle of the desert, but as we know we have an abundance of life here on earth, so how do we know there isn't still life on Mars but they are keeping it from us. They have lied about so many things in the past, so its a little difficult to even accept that there is no sustainable atmosphere on the planet as well. Just a thought. :0)

Very good point, and I don't think that the rover or any of the mission Sol or whatever can really go very deep under the surface I think they really only take small depth readings. I'm not sure though, and why aren't we sending something that can take samples from further below the surface?

There seems to be quite a bit of evidence to suggest that there has(ve) been (a) previous civilizations on Earth -- not proof, but evidence. If we accept that theory for a moment for the purpose of discussion, how long did it take for the majority of those signs to be covered over or otherwise obscured? How long ago might the prior civilization(s) existed?

If Mars was once a planet with vast amounts of water or other organic liquids, what caused that change, and how long did it take? If there was life there, was it carbon-based? The nature of the theoretical life on Mars, it's atmosphere at the time and geology might make it such that there is very little fossil remains.

How long do stone/cementitious, glass, metal structures remain after the surface is mostly wind-driven dust? I agree with the previous members who point out that humans have explored such a tiny amount of Mars that we really can't say anything much conclusively about the planet as a whole. Perhaps us surface-dwellers are stuck in a box where we place an overemphasis on the surface of a planet -- maybe one of the natural orders is for subterranean development.

For all we know, life on Mars left at some distant point in the past and was seeded here on Earth, or went elsewhere(when?).

I think it's very important to our species and understanding of our solar system to explore these planets. Maybe there are communications left behind on them -- possibly ones that require more than a flyby to discover.