Nasa is to reveal Mars water secrets...

[blobrana]

The US space agency's "Significant findings" about water on Mars will be announced  today in Washington DC.

I hope that by confirming the planet was a wet world like Earth some time in its geologic history, and that Mars retains significant amounts of water even today; they will establish that conditions were also suitable for life as well...

i`ve got a feeling that mars is crawling with underground lifeforms...er, like the earth...

  :-o

[cecilia]

"Warning, Dr Smith!!!"
"Warning!!!"

[KennyR]

Blobrana wrote:
i`ve got a feeling that mars is crawling with underground lifeforms...er, like the earth...

Well, they obviously don't use sunlight, or Mars would be green. So they would have to live off warmth and sulphides produced by volcanism. Trouble is, unlike Earth, Mars cooled out a long time ago. No more volcanism. So where would they get their energy from?

[Speelgoedmannetje]

@KennyR

Well, in the deepest parts of the sea here on earth, weren't there lifeforms based on sulphur (and so), other than well where we're based on?


so these probably work different.

Why HAS it to be green?

[blobrana]

Well,
Mars has a lot of sulfer...
i think that the one biggest problem with my theory is that (if life does exist underground due to the hostile surface) any life-forms, given enough time, would have adapted to surface conditions and we should be able to see them...

Unless they are recovering from some past planetary extinction event...

There have been recent discoveries of hydrogen peroxide on the surface, (it`s nasty stuff), and the climate has undergone through several `ice ages`, so perhaps life-forms have gone underground, and have a very slow metabolism...

I don`t think the probes have any instruments on-board to look for living life-forms (except the cameras)..

Hum,
So what`s the bet that nasa says they haven`t found any evidence of life...

[bloodline]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
@KennyR

Well, in the deepest parts of the sea here on earth, weren't there lifeforms based on sulphur (and so), other than well where we're based on?


so these probably work different.

Why HAS it to be green?

Bet even sulphur based organisms need a heat source! I agree with Kenny, without volcanic activity, life on Mars is unlikely :-(

[bloodline]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
@KennyR

Well, in the deepest parts of the sea here on earth, weren't there lifeforms based on sulphur (and so), other than well where we're based on?


so these probably work different.

Why HAS it to be green?

Bet even sulphur based organisms need a heat source! I agree with Kenny, without volcanic activity, life on Mars is unlikely :-(

[bloodline]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
@KennyR

Well, in the deepest parts of the sea here on earth, weren't there lifeforms based on sulphur (and so), other than well where we're based on?


so these probably work different.

Why HAS it to be green?

Bet even sulphur based organisms need a heat source! I agree with Kenny, without volcanic activity, life on Mars is unlikely :-(

[bloodline]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
@KennyR

Well, in the deepest parts of the sea here on earth, weren't there lifeforms based on sulphur (and so), other than well where we're based on?


so these probably work different.

Why HAS it to be green?

Bet even sulphur based organisms need a heat source! I agree with Kenny, without volcanic activity, life on Mars is unlikely :-(

[bloodline]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
@KennyR

Well, in the deepest parts of the sea here on earth, weren't there lifeforms based on sulphur (and so), other than well where we're based on?


so these probably work different.

Why HAS it to be green?

Bet even sulphur based organisms need a heat source! I agree with Kenny, without volcanic activity, life on Mars is unlikely :-(

[bloodline]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
@KennyR

Well, in the deepest parts of the sea here on earth, weren't there lifeforms based on sulphur (and so), other than well where we're based on?


so these probably work different.

Why HAS it to be green?

Bet even sulphur based organisms need a heat source! I agree with Kenny, without volcanic activity, life on Mars is unlikely :-(

[bloodline]

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
@KennyR

Well, in the deepest parts of the sea here on earth, weren't there lifeforms based on sulphur (and so), other than well where we're based on?


so these probably work different.

Why HAS it to be green?

Bet even sulphur based organisms need a heat source! I agree with Kenny, without volcanic activity, life on Mars is unlikely :-(

[blobrana]

Well mars has a semi-molten core, and there are reasons to believe that there are deep volcanic activity still happening. It has even been suggested that a few of the viking images show volcanic steam venting...
Theres a nice image here:
http://mysite.freeserve.com/blobrana/cefoss.jpg
That shows the source of a water flow...the line of `dots` are probably a natural aquifer that is/was sitting above a thermal heat source...

The question is when the heat source cooled...(or if)...
And perhaps their metabolism has adapted, so as not to require an external heat source...Even at minus 120 degrees chemical reactions stall take place (slowly)...

UPDATE on Meeting:
NASA's associate administrator Ed Weiler accompanied by the mission's top geologist Professor Steve Squyres  will attend the press conference at 1900 GMT.


Visual inspection indicates that the region's spherules are made of different material than the matrix rock. The layered rock is tan, while the spherules are gray.
The bulk, or "matrix," of the rock, is composed of very thin layers. The spheres, or "spherules," embedded in the matrix, are about half a centimetre.
One theory about the  origin is that the spherules are "what geologists call concretions." Concretions form when water flows through a rock, carrying tiny bits of dissolved sediment along with it.
The sediment "precipitates around a nucleation site, and it grows these little spherical granules within the rock."

But then again it could have been the discovery of a jaw bone that swayed the balance: see `rock` near upper right , next to the skullcap...
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/n/036/2N129563086EFF0361P1635R0M1.JPG
 :insane:

[JaXanim]

Heat, or more specifically, temperature is a relative parameter of life.

We like things around 20C. Organisms living around hot springs like it at 100C. Organisms around the deep oceanic black smokers are happy at 150C. Algal life has been found thriving hundreds of metres inside the Antarctic iceshelf. Not much heat there and certainly no light.

The fact is, life occupies every nook and cranny of the Earth, provided there is water. Whatever else these things need, they seem to find it. If there's water on Mars, life would not only be possible, but probable.

Cheers,

JaX

[sumner7]

@blobrana

I like your new avatar a lot.