when we find life on Mars will it be past or present?

Assuming Mars used to have oceans teaming with primitive animals like ancient Earth's oceans, do you think we are going to discover signs of past life (such as fossils) or present day descendants of that life (such as bacteria in the ice or something)?

I suppose NASA must have some opinion about this that is shaping their strategy.

I think definitely ..both. there seems to be a lot of evidence for both categories. Perhaps not on the surface for present life..but maybe..if its hardy. those "vegetation" pics on mars anomaly research are pretty intriguing.

I think it will be both past and present, but it will certainly be in the future. I'd love it if they found fossils or larger life forms. Even some the size of a cat, or anything other than bacteria. I'm not saying bacteria wouldn't be cool, but I'd rather they find something larger. It would sure put a wrinkle into a lot of belief systems around the globe.

reply to post by clutch36hp


I agree. I think we will find some type of plant life and then fossils once we finally get there.
I remember another mars photo that shows what seems to be a river with green algae.
And then there are others that look like forests, how awesome would that be

reply to post by cloudyday


ohhh yes.. I belive, I belive mars was the former "earth" before a disaster, but I belive there are still life up there in a small scale,leftovers from cities and roads, trees and simple lifeforms

Past.Hugo Chavez said that life on mars ended because of capitalism.He may be a member of ATS.

I read a book once, basically the premise was that humans had originally come from Mars, and escaped disaster by moving to Earth. It was a great read. I kinda sometimes wonder if this may have happened. The only thing that makes me think that maybe not is the fact that DNA is so similiar between us and most animals on earth. I bet there was life on Mars, but doubt it was more than microbial.

reply to post by cloudyday

[W]hen we find life on Mars will it be past or present?

I think we have already discovered evidence of past life by way of fossils imaged by both MER rovers. Of course, imagery alone does not constitute the proof you have with said fossil in-hand so... you can't really blame NASA this time. If they had even whispered the obvious, they would have been burned at the stake.

As for present life? There has to be something creating the methane in the atmosphere and because Mars seems just a tad quiet in active volcanics, my guess is that there is several vibrant colonies of microscopic life, at the least, just under the surface at several locations across the Martian globe.

Do note that is is just my personal take on the evidence. This means that there is no reason to burn me at the stake. I am just a peasant... my opinions mean nothing.

Neither past nor present.

You can go on till the cows come home about liquid water lakes and river 'looking terrane' features but there is nothing to indicate that what caused the surface features was liquid water, there's a myriad of other chemical compounds found in greater abundance on Mars that has a lower freezing temperatures than H2O. I don't think there was ever anything other than basic carbon compounds that suggest organic compounds that suggest microbial life but there are no clear signatures Mars was ever warm enough long enough for complex multicellular life to evolve there.

If any life is ever found there I think it's buried very deep under the surface where extremophiles could have lived under a few billion years of sediment erosion.

You just can't explain away the lack of a magnetosphere, and surface pressure, to support any kind of atmosphere there suitable for life, the little planet just can't support what earth can.

Originally posted by Illustronic
Neither past nor present.

You can go on till the cows come home about liquid water lakes and river 'looking terrane' features but there is nothing to indicate that what caused the surface features was liquid water, there's a myriad of other chemical compounds found in greater abundance on Mars that has a lower freezing temperatures than H2O. I don't think there was ever anything other than basic carbon compounds that suggest organic compounds that suggest microbial life but there are no clear signatures Mars was ever warm enough long enough for complex multicellular life to evolve there.

If any life is ever found there I think it's buried very deep under the surface where extremophiles could have lived under a few billion years of sediment erosion.

You just can't explain away the lack of a magnetosphere, and surface pressure, to support any kind of atmosphere there suitable for life, the little planet just can't support what earth can.

edit on 4-11-2011 by Illustronic because: (no reason given)

o.k. then same question for Venus.

reply to post by cloudyday


Same answer.
Venus never had a chance, Venus is much more poisonous than Mars and it's surface rock sublimates directly to gas, no liquid water could ever have existed on Venus or in Venus's atmosphere other than extreme high altitudes where temperatures and pressures are lower but only temporarily until it is lost to space due to how dispersed the atmosphere is by then.

I know a lot of Venus surface is opposite the sun, it's day is longer than it's year but the thick atmosphere was there since accretion, and only got thicker with it's rock excreting CO2 directly to gas adding and compounding the runaway greenhouse effect there. So night or day, equator or its poles, whatever season is possible there, Venus has a pretty constant global surface temperature at around 900ºF and always had. Under the surface it's still active, so like on earth the temperature is hotter, hence it has a magnetosphere, but that is the least of it's problem, it's just too close to the sun.

There is just not enough other trace elements in it's atmosphere other than something like 97.5% CO2 for any kind of 'floating/flying' life to high off the surface in the atmosphere either.

Best places to look for life in our solar system other than earth IMO are two moons around the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Europa is stressed enough with the tidal forces of Jupiter and other moons to have a warm core that could hold liquid water under a thick frozen crust that also insulates the subsurface ocean from extreme harmful radiation. Best chance for life to have spontaneously sparked with thermal vents, tectonic activity for liquid water and a thick surface shell for radiation protection.

Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus has been observed to have thermal vents which make up it's famous 'Tiger Stripes', with nearly the exact same conditions and protections at Europa. I'll have to search an old post of mine where this is illustrated.

Ignorance is bliss. I'm still hoping for something on Mars.

Here is the post, it wasn't as extensive as I thought but does have a link and some explanation, (I just think it is cool), hope this works. There have been other related 'life' possibilities about the tiny moon Enceladus, but I'm not going to look for those.

Enceladus Tiger Stripes