NASA May Have Discovered and Then Destroyed Organics on Mars in 1976

NASA as an organization, is/are like the alchemists of old. Looking for that formula to make gold!

"What if?"... "If?".. "Theory has it!...." "I believe (have faith) there's life out there!"... We just need a couple billion more $$$$ for "research"!

"According to our mathematical calculations,....There's a wishing well, on Uranus.".... No educated person takes them seriously.

All of man's "science" is geared towards, disproving how we came to exist. Trying to disprove facts, is always an expensive endeavor.

Here's a hint. It will always come back to that "book of nonsense".

Sad fact is, people that believe in the "book of nonsense", have to help pay for their "outreach programs". Gets really old, saying I told you so.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: face23785

It's not a misconception, it does not have a magnetosphere that protects the planet. Nowhere in your source does it make the claim that you make that some areas are protected and could support life. If you think it does and I missed it please quote it.

Radiation resistant, they do not thrive on it. The word thrive in this case is indicating the microbes are able to reproduce and live in this environment. The environment in this example is NOT Mars, nor is it Mars like. Testing has shown it's possible for microbes to have survived in Permafrost on Mars for millions of years, but it's been BILLIONS, not millions.

Please tell me what life found on Earth can survive on Mars and source it.

Cyanobacteria has been shown to e able to survive on mars. in fact its a possibility for terraforming the planet since it produces oxygen. the reason it can survive is it doesnt have a nucleus. Cyanobacteria have the genetic material distributed all over the inside of the cell, rather than specialized compartments. Meaning radiation cant destroy their ability to reproduce. They are extremely temperature resistant and do not require pressure remember mars is almost a vacuum.

The key with any type of life formed will be water and on mars if there is underground water supplies life may exist. But lets be honest here Cyanobacteria is the lowest possible form of life.

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: face23785

It's not a misconception, it does not have a magnetosphere that protects the planet. Nowhere in your source does it make the claim that you make that some areas are protected and could support life. If you think it does and I missed it please quote it.

Radiation resistant, they do not thrive on it. The word thrive in this case is indicating the microbes are able to reproduce and live in this environment. The environment in this example is NOT Mars, nor is it Mars like. Testing has shown it's possible for microbes to have survived in Permafrost on Mars for millions of years, but it's been BILLIONS, not millions.

Please tell me what life found on Earth can survive on Mars and source it.

Cyanobacteria has been shown to e able to survive on mars. in fact its a possibility for terraforming the planet since it produces oxygen. the reason it can survive is it doesnt have a nucleus. Cyanobacteria have the genetic material distributed all over the inside of the cell, rather than specialized compartments. Meaning radiation cant destroy their ability to reproduce. They are extremely temperature resistant and do not require pressure remember mars is almost a vacuum.

The key with any type of life formed will be water and on mars if there is underground water supplies life may exist. But lets be honest here Cyanobacteria is the lowest possible form of life.

en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: face23785

Now for you mars magnetosphere is not sufficient to protect organisms from radiation. And because of this Radiation will kill any life form that relies on replication using RNA or DNA. Meaning only the most basic forms of life could survive such as viruses.

a reply to: dragonridr

Not really.

So now we have examples of both cyanobacteria and lichens that could survive on Mars for at least a month.

www.planetary.org...

“Low-light adapted organisms, such as the cyanobacteria we’ve been studying, can grow under rocks and potentially survive the harsh conditions on the red planet.”

cosmosmagazine.com...

To date there is nothing definitive.

But I like how you said underground water, that I agree. I was very careful to say nothing can survive on the SURFACE of MArs (where the test was conducted). Underground is a whole new ballgame.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: face23785

It's not a misconception, it does not have a magnetosphere that protects the planet.

It does have a magnetosphere though, which is what I was correcting you on. You said, flat out, "Mars has no magnetosphere." It does.

If these mini-magnetospheres are sufficiently powerful and reach high enough above the Martian surface, they can disturb the boundaries within the planet’s global magnetic field

Nowhere in your source does it make the claim that you make that some areas are protected and could support life. If you think it does and I missed it please quote it.

I didn't make such a claim. I merely said it has localized magnetic fields that do offer protection from radiation. Same paragraph actually.

If these mini-magnetospheres are sufficiently powerful and reach high enough above the Martian surface, they can disturb the boundaries within the planet’s global magnetic field, thus affecting the interaction between the solar wind and the atmosphere, and this may help to protect what is left of Mars’ weak atmosphere.

That doesn't specifically talk about life, because that's not what the piece is about, but it does say the fields may be powerful enough to protect the atmosphere from the solar wind. If it protects the atmosphere, it protects the surface. We would need a specific analysis of the exact strength of these fields, the amount of radiation that gets through them, and whether that amount falls within the tolerance of extremophiles to say for sure whether something would survive there.

Radiation resistant, they do not thrive on it. The word thrive in this case is indicating the microbes are able to reproduce and live in this environment. The environment in this example is NOT Mars, nor is it Mars like. Testing has shown it's possible for microbes to have survived in Permafrost on Mars for millions of years, but it's been BILLIONS, not millions.

Please tell me what life found on Earth can survive on Mars and source it.

So basically until we find life on the surface of Mars, we must conclude that it's impossible for life to survive there? I mean, that's the only conditions that would be Mars.

I think you mistook my meaning here. I wasn't purporting to be able to prove that life can survive on the surface of Mars. I was simply saying that it's presumptuous to claim that it absolutely cannot survive there, given our current understanding. The biggest takeaway from our current understanding is that our current understanding is always being challenged. On Earth we've discovered life forms that can survive high doses of radiation, extreme temperatures, extreme pressures. Do you really believe it's impossible for some form of life to exist that can withstand all of these conditions? I'm not saying it definitely exists, just that it could. It wasn't that long ago that we thought life couldn't survive in one of those conditions, let alone all three. Our current scientific understanding of life is not the end all, be all of the subject. We are always making new discoveries and proving ourselves wrong.

originally posted by: dragonridr
a reply to: face23785

Now for you mars magnetosphere is not sufficient to protect organisms from radiation. And because of this Radiation will kill any life form that relies on replication using RNA or DNA. Meaning only the most basic forms of life could survive such as viruses.

Like I told OccamsRazor, I think what we would need is an analysis of the strength of the localized magnetic anomalies and a comparison to the radiation threshold of known extremophiles. Do you know if such an analysis been done? Without that, I don't see how either of us could make a definitive claim. As I explained to him, I wasn't trying to claim life definitely could exist there, just that given what we know about life's ability to adapt to all kinds of extreme conditions, I don't see how anyone could rule out the possibility. Every time we do that, we wind up being wrong.