Life on Mars!

[clairobscur]

@kaylasdad99

And I consider 3) to be by far the most likely.

Why?

[Cisco]

@kaylasdad99

Actually, the concept of “if it can happen in one place, why not two or three or four or well, you get the idea” is just as exciting.

And I consider 3) to be by far the most likely.

What makes you think 3)? All the articles, expert opinions, etc, that I’ve read in the last few years lean strongly towards 1) and 2).

[kaylasdad99]

Because that makes it unnecessary to postulate a mechanism for life being transported from Mars to here.

ETA: Happy to learn of any that have already been postulated, though.

[Mr.Excellent]

At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon - what does it matter? Even if there is some sort of simple life on Mars, the practical implications for us are likely to be nill.

[Cisco]

@kaylasdad99

Because that makes it unnecessary to postulate a mechanism for life being transported from Mars to here.

ETA: Happy to learn of any that have already been postulated, though.

Without checking (so check yourself if accuracy is important :p) I think meteorites originating from Martian impacts and arriving on Earth and possibly supervolcano eruptions on Mars. I’m less sure about the second one.

Edit: nevermind

[Rolken]

@Mr.Excellent

At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon - what does it matter? Even if there is some sort of simple life on Mars, the practical implications for us are likely to be nill.

It’s about slowly gaining an understanding of what place humanity occupies in the cosmos. The people involved often consider that to be more significant than practical considerations. You also have to keep in mind that the majority of people who are passionate about this stuff consider the purpose of our existence an unresolved question.

@Markxxx

Even if we find fossilized life all that does is lead to three questions

There’s also the possibility that life originated outside the Solar System and was transported to both planets.

[RaftPeople]

@Mr.Excellent

At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon - what does it matter? Even if there is some sort of simple life on Mars, the practical implications for us are likely to be nill.

It’s not exciting for practical reasons. It’s all about discovery about the universe we live in.

[Pushkin]

@xtisme

And would it be worthwhile to (in these trying economic times, blah blah blah) to redouble our exploration efforts, either manned or unmanned, to seek the answers

I’d rather manned space travel paid for by national governments were scrapped for the forseeable future and the various space agencies world wide pooled their unmanned efforts more widely.

[Cisco]

@Pushkin

I’d rather manned space travel paid for by national governments were scrapped for the forseeable future and the various space agencies world wide pooled their unmanned efforts more widely.

That’s pretty much what’s been happening for awhile and will continue to happen for the foreseeable future.

[RickJay]

@xtisme

Well…maybe. Was reading this article on The Science Channel’s web site and thought it might be an interesting debate. Seems fairly conclusive evidence that there is something going on there…but what? And would it be worthwhile to (in these trying economic times, blah blah blah) to redouble our exploration efforts, either manned or unmanned, to seek the answers. How important is the question of life on other planets?

I think it’s the most important scientific question there is, to be honest. The implications of life on another planet are huge;’ the insights we could gain from studying Martian (or Europan, or whatever) life are mind-boggling.

If you really want to explore the question you’d have to get people there, and getting people there will be so shockingly, enormously expensive, and such a long term project, that the state of the economy in any given year really isn’t relevant; the project will last through multiple economic cycles and will require the efforts of many nations. There’s no economic benefit that will match the cost. The question is simply, do we wanna go? Personally, I do, and I’ll toss in my tax dollars.

[ralph124c]

Is it possible that the methan is from a martian landfill?