Life on Mars? NASA press conference live now

[Skrtel Milk]

NASA - NASA TV

[Section_31]

Fascinating stuff!

 

Something, somewhere on Mars is almost certainly alive - and it has a very bad arse!

 

Times

Powerful evidence that life may still exist on Mars was presented by Nasa last night after the discovery that huge plumes of methane were being spurted into the planet’s atmosphere.

 

Detection of the gaseous emissions fell short of offering proof of life but indicated to astronomers a distinct possibility that it not only evolved on Mars, but is still there. Most of the gas on earth is created by animals and plants.

 

Nasa announced the findings at its headquarters in Washington, with Lisa Pratt, of Indiana University, suggesting it was time “to think in terms of present-day life holding on in the subsurface”.

 

Bursts of methane were first detected by the Nasa team in 2003 and in an analysis of the phenomenon it was concluded that tiny organisms could have been responsible. Microbial organisms are known to exist more than a mile underground in South Africa and would provide a perfect model for similar microscopic life creating methane on Mars, researchers said.

 

Professor Pratt said the overall quantities of methane were small, so if life exists on Mars it will most likely be in a “thin invisible film”. However, she added: “It’s time to start thinking about active processes as well as extinct processes. It’s such an exciting discovery. We have evidence we need to think about in terms of the possibility of life on Mars.”

 

Methane was detected using infrared spectrometers in Hawaii but it was impossible to determine whether the gas had been created through biological or geological processes.

 

Such detailed analysis, said Dr Michael Mumma, of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology, the lead author for the research, will be possible on Mars Science Laboratory mission to the planet which is planned for launch in 2011.

 

The robotic craft landed on the surface of the planet will be equipped with spectrometers which will allow it to measure the isotopic content of the methane and indicate whether the gas was formed biologically or geologically.

 

He was also hopeful of using earth-based equipment to seek out other gases in the Martian atmosphere which are associated with biological chemistry.

 

One point adding weight to hopes of finding life, he said, was that the spectrometers failed to detect sulphur dioxide which would have been expected had the methane been formed during volcanic activity.

 

Scientists involved in the finds, reported in the journal Science, said that rather than being produced today by live microbes it could have been created by life forms which died millions of years ago. The gas would have been trapped deep underground and only reached the surface recently.

 

Either way, they maintained, it could indicate life evolved on Mars at some point and that Earth is not unique in developing it.

 

 

 

They cited underground organisms on Earth as of “special interest” as a potential equivalent source of the emissions found on Mars. The bugs use hydrogen as energy and turn carbon dioxide into methane in a process known as radiolysis.

 

“These communities thrive at 2-3 km depth in the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa and have been isolated from the surface (and photosynthesis) for millions of years,” they said in the journal Science.

 

“It might be possible for analogous biota to survive for eons below the cryosphere boundary on Mars. Gases accumulated in such zones might be released to the atmosphere if pores or fissures open seasonally.”

 

It was found that chemical processes in the Martian atmosphere meant the methane broke down much quicker than it does on earth.

 

While the quantities of methane in the plumes were large, the rate at which it was pumped out was slow. The biggest plume, found in 2003, was calculated to contain 19,000 tonnes of methane, similar to that of the huge hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in California, but it was emitted at a rate of 0.6 kg per second.

 

Dr Geronimo Villanueva of the Catholic University of America in Washington said: “The plumes were emitted during the warmer seasons, spring and summer, perhaps because ice blocking cracks and fissures vaporized, allowing methane to seep into the Martian air.”

 

In their report the researchers were unable to reach a conclusion as to how the methane formed: “The most compelling question relates to the origin of methane on Mars. The methane we detected is of unknown age - its origin could be ancient or perhaps recent. Both geochemical and biological origins have been explored, but no concensus has emerged.”

 

Professor Fred Taylor, head of atmospheric, oceanic and planetary science at Oxford University, said after hearing of the research that there was at least a chance of life having developed on Mars, especially as it had emitted in plumes.

 

“Most methane is biologically produced,” he said. “If its focused it’s much more likely to be coming from the interior of the planet, and therefore its quite hard to think of a non-biological source.

 

“It could be that some kind of chemistry nobody understands is occurring. You can make methane inorganically in a chemistry lab quite easily.”

 

He added: “This paper doesn’t settle anything finally. What it says is ’come and have a look’. We need to go there.”

[philyhamann]

Its likely just volcanic activity, but I like to think its a small under ground complex of an advanced civilization by a hundred years or so.

[Section_31]

Its likely just volcanic activity, but I like to think its a small under ground complex of an advanced civilization by a hundred years or so.

 

"One point adding weight to hopes of finding life, he said, was that the spectrometers failed to detect sulphur dioxide which would have been expected had the methane been formed during volcanic activity."

 

It's a shadow vessel and I claim my $5.

[philyhamann]

I hope not.

[Section_31]

I hope not.

 

Why not? It's better than waiting for Russians or Chinese to take us down.

 

If you're gonna go, go with a smile.

 

 

fuck yeah!

[thechap]

There's a fascinating series of pictures on t'interweb of one of the Martian rovers running over and actually reversing over and crushing what many observers believe to be an artifact of some kind to deliberately destroy it.

 

I'll hunt for the link later. On bog at mo, need shower and must do school run.

[RedinSweden]

Finally, Bowie gets an answer.

[Anny Road]

 

I'd go

[RedinSweden]

[dave u]

They're Quagaaaaa's.

[Section_31]

 

I'd go

 

Looks like Oglet shore in Speke.

[Malarkey]

Its likely just volcanic activity, but I like to think its a small under ground complex of an advanced civilization by a hundred years or so.

 

Mole people?

[dirty_sanchez]

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one. I know this because I heard it on a prog rock CD.

[Section_31]

Seriously though, life finds a way. There's life everywhere on this planet, under stones in the antarctic, on the edge of deep ocean vents and under the desert in Africa.

 

In fact, if I don't rinse out my belly button for a couple of days, sooner or later you'll find something growing there too.

 

Life rules - thers' life on mars, I bet my Babylon 5 DVD collection on it.

[Fugitive]

NEW EXCLUSIVE IMAGE FROM NASA!!!!!!!

 

[Fugitive]

Seriously though, life finds a way.

 

 

[Karl_b]

What are the chances of there being life on Mars really?

 

It took an amazing set of circumstances and millions upon millions of years to develop life on Earth; those circumstances are so remote that the chances of it happening on the next planet are surely almost impossible? Or is it the other way, if the circumstances are right on Earth then it makes sense that life could flourish under (relatively) similar ones in the same solar system?

[dirty_sanchez]

I'd go for the latter. I've always had it in my head that there could be life on other planets in our solar system. I think it would be very arrogant to assume that just because we can't find it means it doesn't exist. That's only true for things like Chris' posts where he doesn't pretend to be American and the clitoris.

[Karl_b]

I don't doubt that life exists elsewhere in the universe, it's the odds of it being on the next planet, or our solar system, that I think are remote.

[Section_31]

What are the chances of there being life on Mars really?

 

It took an amazing set of circumstances and millions upon millions of years to develop life on Earth; those circumstances are so remote that the chances of it happening on the next planet are surely almost impossible? Or is it the other way, if the circumstances are right on Earth then it makes sense that life could flourish under (relatively) similar ones in the same solar system?

 

It's great to speculate though.

 

Some scientists think life could have evolved there first and migrated to earth in microbe form on a meteorite.

 

Mars could have been extremely hospitable to life in the past, and many scientists think it suffered some kind of environmental disaster, it could even have been knocked out of its original orbit by an asteroid.

 

Some interesting stuff here.

 

 

This image of a crater in near the Martian North Pole was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the Mars Express orbiter. It shows a large lake of water ice. The temperature when the image was taken was above the sublimation temperature of carbon dioxide ("dry") ice, so the material must be water ice. The lake is about 10 km (33,000 ft) across.

 

 

This picture shows a map made with the MARSIS ground-penetrating radar instrument on the Mars Express orbiter (March 2007). The radar is reflected from regions up to 13,000 feet below the surface of Mars' South Pole, and the image shows the thickness of the layers of water ice. This is the largest water reservoir yet detected on Mars. If distributed uniformly over the Martian surface, it would cover the planet 36 feet deep in liquid water. But the flood plains seen on the surface suggest that there was over 10 times as much water originally present on Mars. [image from Mars Express]

 

 

Spectroscopic measurements of molecular hydrogen with the FUSE satellite provide an estimate of the total volume of water once present on Mars: the equivalent of a global Martian ocean some 4000 feet deep. The image above is an artist's concept of what Mars might have looked like when all its low-lying areas were filled with water.

[philyhamann]

Mars could've had life, running rivers etc millions of years ago. I don't see why not, its still in our solar system and one of the reasons life developed on this planet is because we have several planets "guarding" us. Mars is in the same sort of zone.

[Anubis]

First they hurl methane, then it's asteroids....

 

[philyhamann]

I watched Starship Troopers 3 the other day only cause the main guy was in it from the first one and it was good.

[Section_31]

I watched Starship Troopers 3 the other day only cause the main guy was in it from the first one and it was good.

 

Is it worth getting then yeah? Was looking at that the other day.