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Did NASA just ADMIT to extraterrestrial life?

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posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:30 PM
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So I was reading over the new discover magazine we got in the mail. One of the front page blurbs immediately caught my attention titled "How to survive the end of the universe (wormhole not included)".
So, obviously, I flipped to that story first. Within, I found this tiny paragraph embedded in the story-



The main deterrent to human habitation on mars is that it is too cold. A brightening sun could solve that-or humans could get the job started without having to wait a billion years. "From what we know, Mars did have life and oceans and a thick atmosphere." says NASA planetary scientist Christopher Mckay.


So is this admission that NASA knows about previous life on Mars?
I have emailed Mr.Mckay, lets see if he replies!


On a side note, I tried to find an online version of this article but have come up empty handed.
There is an article titled "How to Survive the End of the Universe (In 7 Steps)" by michio Kaku which was published in 2004. There is no mention of anything mars related in this article.




UPDATE: I received an auto-reply from Mckay stating he will be on vacation without email access until the end of december.

So I guess we will have to wait until january to see if I will even get a reply.



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:33 PM
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Well if that's what they wrote, that's what they wrote.

I bet he will respond about something to do with microbial life.
edit on 18-12-2011 by Violence because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:33 PM
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What evidence do they have to assert such a claim about life on Mars that they aren't sharing with us (yet)? Hmm



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:37 PM
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NASA has thought there was life on Mars for years. Here's an article from 2005 on the NASA site stating evidence of primitive life on Mars they found in a meteorite.



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:38 PM
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reply to post by RenegadeScholar
 


Thats what I was thinking. My best bet is that they feel the Micro-fossils found in the martian meteorite really are microfossils!? Regardless, It is cool to see this little admission slip through. Now if Mckay actually confirms this, Just remember, you heard it here first!



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:39 PM
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Thanks for sharing, for me its just another small confirmation of what I believe to be true.



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:40 PM
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reply to post by VonDoomen
 


Are they operating under the assumption where there is water there is life?

S&F! Excellent way to be pro active! We should anxiously await some sort of reply but I think it may be one celled biological entities. I thought these photos of water evidence on Mars were quite interesting earlier today. www.time.com...

Say this for earthlings: we've grown up a lot since the time we went nuts over the mysterious face on Mars. The face was discovered in 1976, as the orbiting Viking 1 spacecraft looked down on the planet's Cydonia region and found what appeared to be a dark-eyed set of stony features staring back at it. This gave rise to a lot of fevered talk about a vanished (or extant!) civilization signaling its presence, and even to merchandising opportunities, including art prints of the eerie face. It also figured prominently in the execrable Brian De Palma movie Mission to Mars. (The man who inflicted Scarface should surely have stopped before Marsface.) Cooler heads eventually prevailed after the Mars Global Surveyor resurveyed the site in 1998 and proved that the face was just a mesa, and one that had been heavily windblown over the years at that. The face, in effect, was erased.

Happily, there was no similar silliness last week when NASA revealed that the Opportunity rover, which has been prowling the plains and craters of the Red Planet since 2004, had discovered, well, Martian patio tiles — or rectangular formations that looked awfully similar. O.K., rectangles in the Martian soil are admittedly less sexy than faces, but while the face had nothing at all to do with life, the rectangles are one more clue that biology might indeed be — or at least have been — possible on Mars.




Water may mean biology — and biology, of course, would mean Martians.www.time.com...



JPL is already planning Earth-based experiments in which soil and brine of similar composition can be studied for clues to exactly what's going on Mars. A European-American Missions set to launch in 2016 will orbit Mars looking for trace gas emissions, particularly methane and oxygen molecules, both of which could be the byproducts of biological processes.www.time.com...



And here is a photo journal of strange Martian terrain, many showing evidence of water. www.time.com...

edit on 18-12-2011 by newcovenant because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:40 PM
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reply to post by Violence
 


Agreed. I even mentioned in my email to Mckay that I would be surprised if mars did not currently have extremophiles living under the soil. Life is very resilient, especially in microbial form.
And not to mention we know of many microbial, fungal, and insectoid species that can withstand outterspace.



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:42 PM
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I thought the fact that Mars once had life is common knowledge by now?

I'm pretty sure that idea, is widely accepted throughout mainstream science, and has been for some time.



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:42 PM
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reply to post by VonDoomen
 


Did you miss the official report that made headline news years ago from NASA that found evidence of fossilised bacteria on Mars rocks?

I mean, it's not as if they haven't said already there may have been life there in some form.



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:46 PM
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I don't doubt for a moment that life existed on Mars. I read articles in the past about waterways and what not, so its very possible.

Now when it comes to sentient entities that travel in space (I'll leave out interstellar) that is a bit hard to chew. And from reading that snippet, I don't even get that from it.



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:46 PM
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reply to post by curious7
 


As far as i know, they said it MAY be microfossils. However, from what I remember, they came out after and said it was in fact not microfossils. I remember it pretty clearly b/c I was just a young imaginitive lad, and the news blew my mind. And I remember the resulting disapointment when I heard they changed their mind.

There may be a few scientists here and there who are confident enough to say there was once life there, but As far as i was aware, NASA has never officially confirmed they have 100% proof that there was once life on mars.

Im pretty sure if they had, It would have been an extremely big news item.



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:47 PM
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reply to post by calnorak
 

Absolutely no one is arguing for intelligent and/or space faring life.
I dont think we would have to wait for proof if that was the case


We'd already have some sort of free trade agreement with them



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:47 PM
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reply to post by VonDoomen
 


Could we see a copy of the email you sent him?



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:48 PM
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reply to post by celebration
 





NASA has thought there was life on Mars for years. Here's an article from 2005 on the NASA site stating evidence of primitive life on Mars they found in a meteorite.


Don't you just love how everyone seems to ignore this and instead continue on with their own "theories" and speculations regardless of what NASA has already said?

lol



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:48 PM
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Getting drip fed from a timed release of info . Nice but being on the intravenous for so long , ah we would like to get the full meal deal . Pardon the pun .
edit on 18-12-2011 by watchdog8110 because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:58 PM
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The real question is did life on Mars last long enough for a technically advanced civilization to exist?

Nasa 2003 article, Life on Mars


In the past, Mars was much different than it is today. Liquid water used to flow on the surface, as shown in this picture. Both the Earth and Mars should have been frozen in their early history because the sun was weak at first, but both planets show that water was flowing, which suggests that they both must have had thick atmospheres in place to keep the surface warm. In this environment life may have once existed.

The atmospheres on both planets came out of volcanoes. There were not many volcanoes on Mars, and those volcanoes were never very active. Compare this to the Earth where volcanism continues today.

The volcanic eruptions produce a lot of water. The water eventually falls to the ground or into the oceans. Mars is small, and so cooled off very rapidly. Mars was sufficiently cold for water to be absorbed into the ground and freeze like tundra in the Canadian northwest. Today scientists estimate that a large amount of water is frozen into the surface of Mars. They estimate this happened by 2.8 billion years ago.

So it is not likely that Mars will become a haven for life in the future...unless it is life unlike that which we know?


2.8 Billion years ago on Earth, the first signs of life were just evolving, so I'm guessing Mars would be at a similar process for life at the same time.

Or not?



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 05:59 PM
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reply to post by celebration
 


Quote from the article you linked-



A group of scientists led by David McKay of NASA's Johnson Space Center published an article in the 16 August 1996 issue of Science magazine announcing the discovery of evidence for primitive bacterial life on Mars


"Discovery of EVIDENCE for primitive life".

NOT official proof and confirmation from NASA.

reply to post by Chamberf=6
 


^^read^^

and oh yea,,




right back at ya!



posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 06:05 PM
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reply to post by Violence
 


Certainly




I recently read the December, 2011 Discover Magazine story titled "How to survive the end of the universe". Within the story I spotted this interesting quote- "The main deterrent to human habitation on mars is that it is too cold. A brightening sun could solve that-or humans could get the job started without having to wait a billion years. "From what we know, Mars did have life and oceans and a thick atmosphere." says NASA planetary scientist Christopher Mckay." Is NASA now admitting to past life on Mars? I honestly would be surprised if there weren't a few extremophile species alive up there today! Thanks for any clarification, it is certainly an exciting time to be alive!


autoreply:



I will be on travel through the end of December without access to email.


NASA: they can put a man on the moon using only the computing power of a simple calculator, but they cant get their prized scientists internet access 24/7



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