Clues for Extraterrestrial Life Biosignatures

A new study supported in part by the NASA Astrobiology program is providing details about how banded iron formations (BIFs) were deposited on the ancient Earth to become part of the planet’s geological record. Understanding the origin of BIFs is important to astrobiologists because these geological features could be a record of ancient microbial communities in Earth’s past, and would provide clues about the types of biosignatures that future missions could look for on other worlds like Mars.

BIFs are layers of sediment that are rich in iron and date to the Precambrian. Theories suggest that they are they resulted from the interplay of microbial metabolisms that involved the biogeochemical cycling of iron and organic matter (OM). However, BIFs found on Earth today are depleted in OM. The new study examines whether or not the depletion of OM could be the result of the oxidation of this material during the process of iron reduction.

Depleted Organic Matter in Banded Iron Formations Provides Clues for Extraterrestrial Life Biosignatures

Anyone that thinks the 2020 rover is going to find life on Mars IMO is going to be disappointed. That would be way to big of a jump. The world is not ready to know about life on Mars yet. NASA must prepare the world first.

NASA - Life on Mars could be found within two years but world is ‘not prepared’

Nor the ESA rover EXO Mars.

No, I believe something like this here will be our next little drip. Maybe even confirmed at two places on Mars sometime after 2020. That won't be too scary for the world. It will help get them ready for the scary one cell fossils that will be the next drip after biosignatures if the world is lucky.

I just do not see what all the fuss is about. OF COURSE there is life elsewhere, very probably on Mars. So what if they find some little squiggly things under some rocks on Mars? Amoebas? Paramecium? If anyone is "surprised" when they finally find or announce this they have brains the size of amoebas to begin with. What an eye-roller! It is simply not a big deal.

a reply to: schuyler

I really don't understand. It has to be a religious thing. I don't understand why that would be though. The Pope said he would baptist our space brothers. Why would an Amoeba on Mars cause a stir with most religions.

Maybe a lot of the third world would freak out? I really don't see why. Do TPTB think it would cause them some loss of control? Maybe it is just a technicality of some type? Like a contract was signed with the aliens and it says no off world life can be identified to the public in the fine print. Could just be too much red tape?

I agree. The Pope is cool with it. Mainstream religion is cool with it. Perhaps a few fundamentalists would worry about it. I suspect the Third World, by and large, has other things to worry about. "Life," as in tiny critters, is no big deal. Now if the Little Green Men were to land and say, "BTW, we own you." that might be an issue. But baring that sort of scenario, I mean, we still gotta pay the rent.

a reply to: schuyler

I couldn't agree more. That excuse has always annoyed me.

originally posted by: schuyler
I just do not see what all the fuss is about. OF COURSE there is life elsewhere, very probably on Mars. So what if they find some little squiggly things under some rocks on Mars? Amoebas? Paramecium? If anyone is "surprised" when they finally find or announce this they have brains the size of amoebas to begin with. What an eye-roller! It is simply not a big deal.

We were born decades after the initial reason why this would be concealed.

In 1960 the US government asked the Brookings institute to draw up an analysis of what such a revelation would mean and they concluded that letting the public know of either current or past extra terrestrial intelligent life in our own solar system or outside of it or indeed revealing the existence of ANY alien life evidence could literally cause society to collapse as people lost faith in there various religions.

www.outerplaces.com...

Because this was a highly influential think tank there word was taken and official policy from the top level of government down has since been to deny the existence of extra terrestrial life, it's fine to speculate and even to search for it but if it is found it is going to be censored and denied.

My opinion is the Brookings institute were all too eager to take the money but essentially just made something up for the report as it makes no sense, though you know there has seemed to be a concerted effort to prepare the human race to accept it without the culture shock it could have caused to a less informed society.

a reply to: LABTECH767

I am not so sure Brookings is the reason. I guess it makes the most sense.

I have read Brookings doesn't really say what all the CT say it does. I have never read it myself, guess I should.

The government must know that in 2019 things are different. All the movies and the other conditioning we have been exposed to has made a difference.

So you are saying it is because of the red tape? I was just joking when I said that.

I don't think the public would panic if they announced microbial life on Mars or even amphibious life on Europa. But, if there is multi-cell life on Europa or even amphibious life there, then it should be clear there is life everywhere in the universe. The threat to religion is that it is a sign god is not required for life. It simply exists.

Now for intelligent life. Well, if intelligent life has made it to earth, they are way more advanced than us. Way more advanced means they can likely take over the planet. Humans don't like uncertainty. That prospect creates uncertainty. For that reason alone, unless ET makes itself present to the masses, I doubt they ever tell us of intelligent ET. If something leaked from SETI, the message would probably be something like, they are friendly, they are like us and it is impossible for them to ever get here.

I had hoped for disclosure in my lifetime. At age 55, I doubt it. I am at this point hoping they make it to Europa by 2035 and they definitively find life. That puts me at 70. Probably the best I can hope for at this point. I don't look at intelligent ET as a savior. But, I think it would be fascinating to understand how another planet has evolved. The only possibility for that to happen in my lifetime is if we can spot a biosignature planet with the new telescopes and we develop quantum entanglement messaging that can get there FTL. Possible in the next 20-30 years, but not likely.

originally posted by: dougie6665
I had hoped for disclosure in my lifetime. At age 55, I doubt it. I am at this point hoping they make it to Europa by 2035 and they definitively find life. That puts me at 70. Probably the best I can hope for at this point. I don't look at intelligent ET as a savior. But, I think it would be fascinating to understand how another planet has evolved. The only possibility for that to happen in my lifetime is if we can spot a biosignature planet with the new telescopes and we develop quantum entanglement messaging that can get there FTL. Possible in the next 20-30 years, but not likely.

Yeah, my dad was always fascinated by the idea of alien life, probably from his boyhood days of watching Flash Gordon serials at the movies when he was a kid. He died at 80, and never got an answer. Now I'm catching up with him.

Some people are convinced that life of some sort exists out there, despite there being either no evidence or highly disputed evidence, and I can understand that. It's an interesting notion and something that stirs some folks' imaginations. After all, we're here, right? We beat the odds, so maybe something else out there did, too.

But for average schmoes like us, there's not a lot we can do to hasten its discovery, if there ever will be a discovery. Our brainy scientists keep building more elaborate space probes and telescopes, and we have really increased our understanding of just how vast, harsh and toxic space really is, and how tenuous our own life on this planet is. But have we found it yet? Nope. And that's not a good omen. Maybe someday they'll build a probe or a telescope so big and elaborate that we'll finally spot an indisputable life sign out there, or some very advanced alien will decide to pay us a very obvious visit.

Unfortunately, if it happens, I'm pretty sure I won't live long enough to see it. Probably none of us will. But, hey, we can keep trying. It's really not that expensive in the grand scheme of things, and besides, what else do we have to occupy our time and big imaginations?