Subsurface Water Ice And Chances For Present Life on Mars

wildespace
reply to post by OccamsRazor04

 

"No, liquid water on Mars is impossible." - You replied to a post about underground reserves of frozen water which, under certain conditions, may stay liquid. No one is talking about oceans of water splashing around on Mars.

Quite right. I am so used to hearing people talk non stop about above ground water on Mars. I don't see this scenario as likely .. but possible as there is not enough information to disprove it.

ETA:In my defense the responses to my post were all about surface water flows .. which is what I am used to hearing on ATS.

wildespace
reply to post by OccamsRazor04

 

"No, liquid water on Mars is impossible." - You replied to a post about underground reserves of frozen water which, under certain conditions, may stay liquid. No one is talking about oceans of water splashing around on Mars.

Thanks for the clarification, wildespace ... that was more or less what I and others were getting at with our previous posts.

If there is water ice buried in the ground (away from the poles) and if there are seasonal (temporary) streaks of saltwater on the surface in areas with higher temperatures, then the chemical reactions between rocks & water 'underground' (--> protection from radiation) could well result in a fertile environment for extremophile organisms IMO.

reply to post by jeep3r


The only problem with that is that it appears those conditions would not be conducive to life starting in any way we have found plausible. So the odds of that being the case would be highly unlikely. Until we check it can't be ruled out though.

reply to post by OccamsRazor04


One could think that any extremophile organisms on Mars today would be the surviving remains of a previous and much older ecosystem. Even if most of that was lost over time, they might still live in their niche today feeding on energy from chemical reactions underground. But would they really require such an 'older' ecosystem to evolve in the first place? I don't know and it's hard to tell.

At this point it's really just a thought experiment without hard evidence, but IMO the chances for discovering primitive organisms beneath the surface are better than ever before when considering the information compiled in this thread up to now ...

reply to post by jeep3r


There is a good chance I would say that mars could have some Micro organisms living there. And if it does it has HUGE value.

But it wont be more than Micro organisms so dont hold your breath for little green men.

crazyewok
reply to post by jeep3r

 

There is a good chance I would say that mars could have some Micro organisms living there. And if it does it has HUGE value.

But it wont be more than Micro organisms

What a find that would be though!

So many theories about extraterrestrial life could be tested including panspermia if it turns out that Mars microbes and Earth microbes are closely related genetically.

reply to post by JadeStar


Your deffinatly right it would be the find of a century. At least for us that live in geek land :p

Europa is my favorite target though,