If Mars Ever Had a Civilization...Would We Find Hints in Images?

The notion that Mars had life (or, who knows, maybe even a civilization) many millions, if not BILLIONS of years ago is actually not too far fetched.

The question is, by exploring Mars today, looking over images etc..what would we find..if anything..of a civilization which might have inhabited Mars a billion years ago?

(I am pretty convinced that Mars was once a habitable planet, everything speaks for it, and the idea that life on Earth originated from Mars is actually also halfway plausible scenario...)

On a related note...what would someone else find on Earth, say, 1000 Million years from now, in what was formerly called the area of "New York" or "Los Angeles"? I guess..it would come out as being the same as asking "what does someone see if one is looking at the location where once a city was, named "Ur". (Or Troy or Göbleki Tempe etc...etc..) With the difference that those are only several 1000s of years old, not 1000 of millions as in my example with Mars....

yup. Like, statues, pyramids, building, faces, skulls, etc etc..

reply to post by flexy123

1000 Million years is a very long time. On earth we have fossil records going back a very long time. Things such as Trilobites are found encased in rock. I'd say if there was life at any stage, Nasa will find it and then they wont tell us about it and will continue to photoshop all the pic's.
There will be nothing to see here, Folk's. Please move right along.

reply to post by flexy123


It would really depend on what they built their structures out of. I forget the series name, but there is/was a show all about if humans disappeared and how long it would take for our civilization to disappear. I remember them saying most all modern things would be the first gone and the last things to stand would be structures like the Pyramids and other things built of solid stone, that at least currently, only erodes from wind and the little rain they get.

But if something happened to say bury a civilization, that would preserve it longer, but we'd only find those I think if we did sonar mapping of the land, which I don't think we're starting to do that yet.

Yep but not in any images we will be seeing!

reply to post by flexy123


I seriously doubt it. For one thing, we know of the active vulcanism on Mars,as well as the largest volcano in the Solar System. Life thrives around volcanoes........anything around billions of years ago (or even hundreds of millions) would be well under the crust by now and therefore invisible from any surface scans.

Obviously, that is just one aspect but i believe it illustrates the difficulties perfectly. Put it this way, if they find remains of a building or whatever, i would be highly suspicious of the authenticity. Look at abandoned buildings on Earth (with full atmospheric protection) - generally, they do not last all that long.

Stompbox may be referring to History's "Life After People". en.wikipedia.org...
This will show you the evanescence of civilisations and their remains by todays earth-humans as an example. Great show imo.

Regarding your question: If martians send a rover to us without hint of civilisation, it would most likely land in the ocean, desert or any other boring place. Thats why my hopes in the rover pics aren't that high.

If i had to decide, my rover would land somewhere around Cydonia region on mars.
Why? Out of REAL "curiosity" (pun intended)

Originally posted by flexy123
The notion that Mars had life (or, who knows, maybe even a civilization) many millions, if not BILLIONS of years ago is actually not too far fetched.

The question is, by exploring Mars today, looking over images etc..what would we find..if anything..of a civilization which might have inhabited Mars a billion years ago?

(I am pretty convinced that Mars was once a habitable planet, everything speaks for it, and the idea that life on Earth originated from Mars is actually also halfway plausible scenario...)

On a related note...what would someone else find on Earth, say, 1000 Million years from now, in what was formerly called the area of "New York" or "Los Angeles"? I guess..it would come out as being the same as asking "what does someone see if one is looking at the location where once a city was, named "Ur". (Or Troy or Göbleki Tempe etc...etc..) With the difference that those are only several 1000s of years old, not 1000 of millions as in my example with Mars....

edit on 16-8-2012 by flexy123 because: (no reason given)

Mars didn't have life billions years ago. Sun wasn't very warm just yet, and planet was colder than it is today. There might have been life when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, maybe 200 million years ago. I believe Mars was very earth-like with dense atmosphere. Then planet slowly cooled down, as nuclear reactions inside it faded and its core was frozen. Volcanic activity ceased and volcanoes stopped spewing CO2 to its atmosphere. Frozen core couldn't keep strong magnetic field, and most of atmosphere was lost to space.

There might be marks of civilization in its vast cave networks. Mars is full of caves, and they are so dark, that we cannot see what's inside them.

Optical illusion?
Searching "Mars trees" brings a lot of hits and opinions.

Originally posted by kudegras
reply to post by flexy123

 

1000 Million years is a very long time. On earth we have fossil records going back a very long time. Things such as Trilobites are found encased in rock. I'd say if there was life at any stage, Nasa will find it and then they wont tell us about it and will continue to photoshop all the pic's.
There will be nothing to see here, Folk's. Please move right along.

Delusional garbage like this is what is wrong with the internet.

reply to post by kudegras
If nasa found fossilized evidence of past life on Mars they would share it with everyone, there is no reason why they wouldn't...

To the op... Mars started out similar to earth. But conditions favorable to the development of life did not last long there. The time scale mars was able to produce and support life was probably only 1 billion years, after that initial phase the planet lost its atmosphere and went into a deep freeze, where it has remained ever since...

If we use earth as comparison to what could have evolved in those 1 billion years of shallow oceans and a thicker atmosphere we see only single-celled organisms and Stromatolites (early photosynthesizers) More complex life did not arise until around 2 billion years after the formation of the planet 'mars would have been long dead by that time'.

So the chances of them finding the remains of some ancient civilization there are just about impossible.

reply to post by BigBrotherDarkness


seriously, what the hell?

is this photo for real?


nevermind, i just had to google it
appears to be. linky

reply to post by Thebel


But isn't that assuming the life that may have existed on mars required heavy sunlight? Maybe they only required small amount.

When i look at mars i see a torn world, that maybe have been green and blue in the past with an atmosphere..

reply to post by luciddream


Possibly but then look at Atzil's post, it sums it up very neatly. Plus we know that on Earth, the swallowing and regurgitating of land takes hundreds of millions of years. Therefore it would be safe to assume it was similar on Mars (perhaps an even shorter span of time as the plant is smaller than Earth). Anything that was on the surface would have gradually worked down to the mantle and then back up again, leaving no trace of prior civilizations.

It would be simply amazing to find something but sadly i just do not think it is possible or probable. Would love to be wrong though. And if we ever found life on another planet i would end up pitying it, as no doubt it would end up in a glass cage suffering the indignity of rectal probes by our scientific grey beards!