Life on MARS - TODAY

[Shad0w]

Okay I dont know about all you, but this is REALLY exciting... I think this could lead to the greatest scientific find in all of history! Could finally prove life exists elsewhere other than earth.

(Personally I think its arrogant for humans NOT to think it does and we are somehow special)

WASHINGTON -- A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.

The scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, told the group that they have submitted their findings to the journal Nature for publication in May, and their paper currently is being peer reviewed.

What Stoker and Lemke have found, according to several attendees of the private meeting, is not direct proof of life on Mars, but methane signatures and other signs of possible biological activity remarkably similar to those recently discovered in caves here on Earth.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...fe_050216.html

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

BOB:

Even before this I could never say there was not life or is life beyond Earth alone. I think it may be to premature to state that as even today we are still discovering so much on this rock, once more focus goes into space and new generations move in that direction we may find life right in our back yard that people did not think exist. On a personal note I believe we in time will see what the universe has beyond this rock.



Tony

[Shad0w]

Oh I totally agree with you Tony... Life is resiliant and we continually find life in places we would have never expected it to be right here on earth

[Tim_Cranwill]

Well, how many planets/solar systems do we even know of? Even if it is say, 1000 planets (I have no idea) and we KNOW one of them has life (ours). So that is 0.1% of all planets we know to exist having life. Let’s say that our odds were really good there and there is only life on one out of 100'000 planets, given how many stars there are, there must then be 1000's and 1000's of other planets with life.

I bet they don't all have human like figures with crap stuck to their foreheads though like the Trekkies would have us believe!

[ATBlover]

hmm so far all we know of is 9 planets..i don't know where you got 1000 from??..but once they continue moving beyond the 9'th planet they may find life on another plante...its possible to rfind another earth in a nother solar system!....Connor

[ATBlover]

.

[JAdkins2451]

ATBLOVER, you are way off there is more then 9 planets Iam not sure where you got you info.. Check out this website

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/

[Tim_Cranwill]

ATBlover, I was only speculating and made up that number for argument's sake. I know “they” have discovered more than the 9 planets in our solar system and I'm pretty sure that has been known for YEARS. I just picked 1000 as a nice round number. Think about it though; how big do they think the universe is? And how much of that have they been able to explore? And they’ve found 150-odd planets… You do the math this time.

[JAdkins2451]

Hey Tim its 145 to be exact I got what you said, but they say each star is a sun to its own solar system.. Look at all the stars so I wold belvie there is tons more to be discoverd.I belive I may be wrong. But am not 100% sure its just stuff I have read.

[latazyo]

probably a hoax...jk

this is good news

[Slannesh]

It's almost a statistical impossibility that life doesn't exist on other plantets...

I mean think about it... many billion starts in our galaxy alone. Rule out 99% of those right off the bat cause they aren't the same type of star as Sol.

that leaves many tens of millions of stars. Rule out 99% of those cause they either don't have planets or the wrong type of planets.

That leaves hundreds of thousands.

rule out 99% of those just for the hell of it.

that leaves thousands of stars. And that's in ONE galaxy among who knows how many?

Math alone tells us that life is out there.

[Shad0w]

Shannesh,

Yep thats exactly how I feel... but tell me it wont be an exciting moment when we actually discover that life

[SnowSnake]

Originally posted by Shad0w
Shannesh,

Yep thats exactly how I feel... but tell me it wont be an exciting moment when we actually discover that life

They are so far away that a person trying to get there would probably die of old age! They can be millions of light years away. (light years = distance light can travel in a year, speed of light = 299 792 458 m / s)

If you do the math 1 light year is about 9 454 254 955 488km or 9.5 trillion Km. Pretty far :P

P.S. I'd like to see what kind of intelligence they have and if they are as evolved or more than us.

[DragnDrop]

Originally posted by SnowSnake
They are so far away that a person trying to get there would probably die of old age!

How about 'them' discovering 'us'?
We have no choice but to believe the universe has been around for eternity. If 'they' are one of the older civilizations, they could have developed better transportation than we can imagine, so Star Trek's warp speeds could easily be the norm for them. They've had long enough to perfect it if our own civilization is any indication how fast things can be invented.

I'm quite convinced there's life out there. Some is more primitive, but going by how young our Sun is, there are an awful lot of stars much older where life could be aeons more advanced.

[Shad0w]

Hey I really think the possibility of finding very primitive life (bacterial etc) on mars is very possible, and I think probable if we know where to look... once that happens... well.. how can anyone deny life existing elsewhere?