Evidence for life builds on Mars

reply to post by ArMaP


Hi,

Armap I highly respect your posts but haven't you just completed the equation?

'It's true that serpentinization needs liquid water....'

Personnaly I just see rocks....

Peace!


[edit on 8-12-2009 by The Wave]

what would happen if we were to strike olympus mons with enough force to cause an eruption ? how much gasses would be released from that wouldnt be enough to do much really there would be alot of ash for sure....or possibly find a way to trigger volcaninc eruptions all over.

Originally posted by Imagir
reply to post by ArMaP

 

...In my opinion
Ice+water+methane=life...

It certainly is an indication that life may exist, but it is not conclusive evidence. The presence of methane is certainly exciting news, and NASA should further research it, but it would be very premature and "reckless science" for scientists to jump to that conclusion.

I suppose it's fine for you to have that opinion that water+methane=life, but that would be a hasty and presumptuous conclusion for a scientist.

I wouldn't want NASA stating that life exists on Mars "as a fact" based on information that could be interpreted another way. That would serve no purpose.

reply to post by ArMaP


Water Still Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars
www.nasa.gov...
www.timesonline.co.uk...

Water Ice
afp.google.com...

only 1 way to find out and that is analyze the methane in situ. Geological & life based methane have diffirent chemical structure.

Until then nobody can say for sure where the methane comes from.

[edit on 8-12-2009 by yeti101]

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Agreed.
But I think that we will wait a decades before an official statement from Nasa.
What we can do in a "place" like ATS is push for change.

reply to post by The Wave

That's why I added that at the moment it's a tie between both possibilities, if we think that we only need water to have life.

Edit: and that's why we should not consider one as sure and the other as unreal.

[edit on 8/12/2009 by ArMaP]

reply to post by Imagir

Did you noticed the "Suggest" in the article's title?

They have no way of knowing what flowed there, only that it looks to have been a liquid flow.

As they know that there is water ice on Mars, there's a good possibility that it was liquid water, but there isn't any real proof (and that was what I said on my post) that there is liquid water on Mars.

Methane has been discovered on most of the planets and moons in the solar system all be it in very small amounts could this be caused by abiotic process?

Methane is found in the northern hemisphere of Mars which happens to be the geologically active area on Mars. Which means there is volcanic rock (i.e ultramafic rocks) which when reacted with the theoretical Martian aquifer, approximately 2-20 km deep, can form serpentine and molecular hydrogen which then reacts with carbon in the crust to form methane.



While both theories rely on there being liquid water on Mars the biological process also relies on Mars having ever been habitable to life in the first place. This is information that we dont know for sure, hopefully we find out once the Mars Science Laboratory gets up there and starts doing some work.

Originally posted by Imagir
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

Agreed.
But I think that we will wait a decades before an official statement from Nasa.
What we can do in a "place" like ATS is push for change.

NASA has already officially stated that life may have once existed on Mars, and that it is possible that life still does exist on Mars.

They are not going to say that "life definitely exists" until they have solid evidence. What is your solid evidence that makes you so sure?

[edit on 12/8/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Clues...
Tons of clues...
But you are right for the moment... only clues.

The BBC have just put up some more of the same info on the subject,

Meteoritic material subjected to high temperatures did not release enough methane to account for the amount believed to be released on Mars.







Link