The latest post from The Advanced Apes YouTube channel: Is There Life On Mars?
If you want to check out previous videos:
I have found myself really looking forward to these video's and it's not just because the music in the background is so amazing. Great work. If life on Earth was seeded by extremophiles from Mars via a meteorite, how would that happen? Would the meteorite have literally bounced off of mars as in your video? How does a large piece of rock get from Mars to Earth? I realize that this is just a hypothesis, but how do people explain that?
Mars rocks hit Earth with surprising frequency, even today. You could say that the inner solar system "geologically communicates". Remember Mars does not have a very strong magnetic field so it gets hit by meteorites all the time (of various sizes) and Martian dust and rocks gets jettisoned up into the weak atmosphere and into the solar system. Sometimes the debris finds its way to Earth! We know that this would have happened at a much higher frequency in the early solar system because the early solar system was so chaotic and meteorites collided with planets at a very high frequency. We also know that simple prokaryotes can exist almost anywhere... even on meteorites and asteroids. Of course we don't know whether abiogenesis first started on Mars and then early life was transferred to Earth. It is still just a hypothesis and not necessarily more likely than the alternatives that abiogenesis just started on Earth, or abiogenesis started on both Mars and Earth simultaneously!If life on Earth was seeded by extremophiles from Mars via a meteorite, how would that happen?
There might be life since the landing of Curiosity: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/11/curiosity-bac...
Even though I was aware of this possibility, reading this: ... was really depressing. If life is discovered on Mars with the same basic DNA code as on Earth, we may never know its origin or relationship to Earth-life... or at least it will make answering that question more difficult.Worried scientists at Nasa now estimate that there may be as many as 250,000 bacterial spores that could have survived both the journey to Mars and the landing. If Curiosity drills into the ground and strikes water, the Nasa team will have to assess the risk of continuing knowing that they could have permanently seeded life onto Mars. That might mean never knowing for sure whether life was ever indigenous to the Red Planet.
I still give better than even chances that there is microbiotic life on Mars. The surface is incredibly hostile, and it's very likely that any life would be difficult to locate. I was a bit disappointed that Curiosity wasn't more equipped to search for signatures of life. Ultimately, it might come down to human exploration to really determine if life is there. It is a very interesting point that we might not have had another candidate for colonization in our solar system. People often frame Mars colonization in terms of the difficulties, however, it's almost dumb luck that we can even entertain the notion. We have the current technology to colonize Mars. Now we just need to wait for the costs to fall and the our will to do it to rise.
I have absolutely no idea where I stand on this question anymore. It's so tough. I'm almost more interested in whether or not abiogenesis occurred twice in our solar system. I think that would have more relevance to our understanding of life in the universe. Apparently the ESA 2016 and NASA 2020 missions will be better equipped to check of this. I've also heard a few people saying that our best way to find out would be to bring back large samples of Martian rocks. Let's go Mars-One! Exactly! I would hazard a guess that we are very lucky to have two planets in the same solar system with the potential to support complex life. That's probably very rare.I still give better than even chances that there is microbiotic life on Mars.
I was a bit disappointed that Curiosity wasn't more equipped to search for signatures of life.
Ultimately, it might come down to human exploration to really determine if life is there.
however, it's almost dumb luck that we can even entertain the notion.
My thoughts as well. I honestly think the robots are all going to come up empty on proof of life. Precursors, tell-tale signs, and markers pointing to life they have already been found. But life itself? Actual proof? Like "Here's a microbe!" My bet is it's there, but won't be found until a manned mission, and that once people are there, they find it within days. They can do more labratory science in an hour on the surface than Curiosity and all other past rover programs can do combined. The only unmanned program I think that could do it, would be sample-return mission... which only because it could be analyzed by scientists here on Earth.Ultimately, it might come down to human exploration to really determine if life is there.