Life on Mars may have lived underground

I know this has been a theory for sometime and I know other in other posts have suggested this as a plausible situation for ETs and Mars. Well according to NASA it maybe a little more accurate then we thought take a read.

A new NASA report suggests life on Mars may have been most likely to be found underground.

"The most stable Mars habitats over long durations appear to have been in the subsurface," said lead author Bethany Ehlmann. Recent findings based on years of mapping the minerals on the planet's surface indicate that life may have once existed underground and that the possibility exists that conditions may still be right for it now.

Caption for Image-The blue areas in the false-color image (right) are of clays formed below the Martian surface

They are basically stating the subsurface has better minerals for life support then on the actual surface itself. I'll provide a link to the full article.

Link

conditions may still be right for it now.

so there are still some of them...but we'll never know like the moon snails...

Ahh, i would do anything to just float as an conscience and travel all over the universe, exploring for millions of years.

Originally posted by Hessdalen

conditions may still be right for it now.

so there are still some of them...but we'll never know like the moon snails...

Well they are saying that the conditions are right for subsurface living on Mars, that being the case, some could still be down there. Either simple life forms or ETI. Either way something could be down there that we could define as "alien".

Either russia or nasa has to hurry up and get a manned mars mission going.

Well we have been saying that on these forums for years!

So fed up with these stating the office press statements,what next life could be on europa!

Originally posted by AaronWilson
Either russia or nasa has to hurry up and get a manned mars mission going.

It could either be a solo mission with NASA and Russia, or they could a joint mission and actually get some results. I'm sure they could make it work, just gotta find the right guys/gals for the job.

Originally posted by SloAnPainful

Originally posted by AaronWilson
Either russia or nasa has to hurry up and get a manned mars mission going.

It could either be a solo mission with NASA and Russia, or they could a joint mission and actually get some results. I'm sure they could make it work, just gotta find the right guys/gals for the job.

Well count NASA out because Obama told NASA they would get NO money to go back to the Moon and they can't send a man to Mars for at least 25 years... but he will give them money to land on asteroids

Aren't yawl glad ya voted for him?



Maybe China can do it Buzz Aldrin seems to think so

I will say this proudly, I DID NOT vote for him. Just sayin'

-SAP-

So the new site is Gale Crater..

Interesting that the image shows a lot of GREEN and blue not the typical NASA reds we are so used to seeing

NASA's next rover to land on Mars will touch down in a place called Gale crater, a site that scientists say will offer the best chance for studying whether the red planet could have supported life.

news.nationalgeographic.com...#

Will put this on my must watch list



Also your OP links mentions prehnite having been found. First I heard that

Another indication of underground hydrothermal environments came with the discovery of the mineral prehnite, which is formed at temperatures of around 400°F (~200°C), typical of such environments.

I can add that to the mineral list along with the other gemstone they found on the moon. Now if only I could snag a couple piece for cutting....

That crator has a very smooth texture too. Maybe, at one time, was full of water? Looking at it theres hardly any ridges inside the crator its self. Intresting.

Originally posted by SloAnPainful
That crator has a very smooth texture too. Maybe, at one time, was full of water?

Well why didn't they go to THIS crater if they were seeking life and water?



I bet that pond is just swimming with critters

Great thread OP! I believe our Solar System is teeming with life, and apparently so do others considering the high costs of these Martian missions.

Set to launch Saturday Morning:

NASA

reply to post by zorgon


We still me might be 25 years out from a Manned Mars Mission, but at least we accomplished this mission.

Mars500

Well heck who needs to take the slow boat to Mars anyway when the Black Ops world has had the Jump Rooms to Mars for decades?

Basiago and Eisenhower reveal "Marsgate"

Independent Mars colony recruits Andrew D. Basiago and Laura Magdalene Eisenhower have confirmed the existence of a secret human survival colony on Mars in a joint appearance on Exopolitics Radio with Alfred Lambremont Webre.

www.examiner.com...

That's president Eisenhower's daughter... SHE should know

Project Camelot | 'Jumproom to Mars' transcript
www.projectcamelot.org...

reply to post by zorgon

Interesting that the image shows a lot of GREEN and blue not the typical NASA reds we are so used to seeing...

Your link takes us to the NatGeo article, where they source that image, courtesy of NASA.

Does it not appear to be a "false color" sort of image? (Although not pointed out in the NatGeo article).

But, the text from that article gives a "mental picture in words":

"Beautiful" Gale Resembles U.S. Southwest

...."It will look a lot like the U.S. Southwest—areas like [Utah's] Monument Valley....

The Monument Valley wasn't "green and blue", last time I checked.


I found the original image of Gale Crater form NASA's APOD:

apod.nasa.gov...


Gee....gray-scale, isn't it?

Oh, that's because it was imaged using the THERMIS

Explanation: This sharp view from the Thermal Emission Imaging System camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter is centered on 154 kilometer (96 mile) wide Gale crater, near the martian equator. Within Gale, an impressive layered mountain rises about 5 kilometers (3 miles) above the crater floor. Layers and structures near its base are thought to have been formed in ancient times by water-carried sediments..

Now, who is willing to wager that those "green and blue colors" are exaggerated? Maybe to represent something other that one would see, with the Human eye, in the visual light spectrum??

Here, to compare, a high-res close-up of near the center of the Crater, from HiRISE:



AT that angle and height, mush of the characteristic "rust-color" is lacking. But, this is what makes it far more interesting to visit and study.

The exposed rock layers, absent the reddish soil and dust...and the colors that denote possible salts and other mineral deposits.

Layers of rock exposed in the lower portion of a tall mound near the center of Gale Crater on Mars exhibit variations in layer thickness and range between dark and light tones. The crater's mound of layered material is over 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) high, making it more than twice as thick as the stack of rocks exposed in the Grand Canyon on Earth......

....This view of layering in the mound's lower formation covers an area about 950 meters (3,100 feet) wide. It was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 23, 2009.....

....Observations of the lower formation by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, on the same orbiter, have indicated the presence of sulfate salts and clay minerals in these rock layers. The changes in composition from the lower (older) to the upper (younger) layers in the Gale Crater mound may record stages in water loss and the drying out of Mars.

Layers in Lower Formation of Gale Crater Mound

reply to post by SloAnPainful

.....I know other in other posts have suggested this as a plausible situation for ETs and Mars.

If by "ETs" you refer to any sort of extraterrestrial life, then in all probability it might still exist, in isolation underground.

However, determining the extent of Mars' past and its atmosphere that would have been sufficiently dense for long enough for more complex organisms to have thrived and evolved on the surface? Based on our own "look-back" at Earth's history, and what is known so far (more of course, always to be discovered and studied)....it seems unlikely that Mars had a viable climate or biosphere for many large organisms to develop.

Especially intelligent versions.

Nature can be full of surprises, of course......many single-celled bio-organisms exist on Earth and are dubbed "extremophiles", since they thrive in conditions that are not suitable for most of the flora and fauna that we are more familiar with.

reply to post by ProudBird


Oh give it a rest ArMaP and I long ago settled the real color of Mars issue...

Not everything needs automatic debunking... try to step outside that box once in awhile and smell the Martian vegetation

There seems to be some evidence on Mars that this is the case. There is more than one place on Mars that shows what might be significant surface disposal of waste, from underground. Of course, we have seen numerous reports/stories about methane detection/readings on Mars being higher than expected, and not sure of the source. Human/biologic waste is one of the "possible" sources of methane.

And, there are other surface anomalies/indications that there could be/could have been life underground - such as craters that have an interior that has a "not just a crater" look.

"We", the general public, just won't know, until we have boots on the ground there!

Originally posted by rdunk
There seems to be some evidence on Mars that this is the case. There is more than one place on Mars that shows what might be significant surface disposal of waste, from underground. Of course, we have seen numerous reports/stories about methane detection/readings on Mars being higher than expected, and not sure of the source. Human/biologic waste is one of the "possible" sources of methane.

And, there are other surface anomalies/indications that there could be/could have been life underground - such as craters that have an interior that has a "not just a crater" look.

"We", the general public, just won't know, until we have boots on the ground there!

I agree not much can be known until we actually go there. I wouldn't hold your breath though, given the fact Obama cut NASA's funding, so we have to rely on the Russians and, dare I say it...the Chinese.

Seriously though there is something going on there. Either primitve life, or some kind of inteligent ET. Just a thought though.

-SAP-