Outer Space Thread

[TimeForGuinness]

So with the recent discovery of liquid water on Mars, there is a legit possibility that there is life, most likely microbial, but still alien life. What a huge discovery that would be.

So let's say such microbial life is found, do you guys think that it could be a possibility that intelligent life was prominent on Mars a looooong time ago? and that perhaps there was some sort of disaster that completely wiped it out, but before that happened, earth was seeded by such Martians? Hasn't it been proven that Mars was once covered by vast oceans?

I know it probably sounds silly and im probably getting way ahead of myself but i am absolutely fascinated by this whole thing.

Maybe the face on mars *wasnt* just a big ole mountain.

I think that while it's exciting to think about the possibility of life, I think it's equally exciting that we might be able to support an extended manned mission to Mars if we can desalinate the existing water (drinking, greenhouses, etc). I don't know how much water is there, and if it can be treated, so I might be getting way ahead of myself...but the less water we have to bring, the better.

[Jocephus]

[Freed Roger]

Send a robot up there to brew some beer from this water.

[Jocephus]

Send a robot up there to brew some beer from this water.

oh yeah, you know some hipster craft brewery wants that mars water

[IMADreamer]

So with the recent discovery of liquid water on Mars, there is a legit possibility that there is life, most likely microbial, but still alien life. What a huge discovery that would be.

So let's say such microbial life is found, do you guys think that it could be a possibility that intelligent life was prominent on Mars a looooong time ago? and that perhaps there was some sort of disaster that completely wiped it out, but before that happened, earth was seeded by such Martians? Hasn't it been proven that Mars was once covered by vast oceans?

I know it probably sounds silly and im probably getting way ahead of myself but i am absolutely fascinated by this whole thing.

Maybe the face on mars *wasnt* just a big ole mountain.

It's an interesting idea that's for sure. Don't think I'd put too much stock in it but it's interesting.

[Maclowery]

I think it's exceedingly unlikely that there is or was life on Mars. Venus is totally where it's at. Total babes down there.

In all seriousness, I am a total geek for outer space stuff, and I truly hope to live long enough to go into space (at least high atmosphere) before I kick the bucket. If I make it 50 more years, which my unhealthy lifestyle but long-lived genetic forebearers disagree with, I think it's possible. So whether the salty water on Mars ever got zapped into microbial life, whatever it takes to get this crowded-ass planet another option is good news in my books.

[Vidor]

I'm curious too. I wonder what, if any, evidence of human life would remain hundreds of millions after humans ceased to exist.

Oh, that's easy.

Nothing. Not a goddamn thing. A while back we had that discussion about how the one-way mission to Mars is a giant scam--was it in this thread?--and I posted a link to a long article that, pretty much as an aside, talked about this. Of all the crap that we have on the planet at the moment, the thing that would last the longest is the carvings at Mt. Rushmore, which are carved into granite. And IIRC the article said they will be gone in about ten thousand years.

EDIT--well goddamn, I remembered that completely wrong. The article cites a hundred million years for all trace of us to be gone. Ten thousand years is cited at a time where Mt. Rushmore would still be recognizeable.

https://medium.com/matter/all-dressed-u ... 76df527ca0

[Vidor]

As for intelligent life on Mars, as suggested above, intelligent life on this planet didn't evolve until right now, so it would seem unlikely that it was ever on Mars.

Good old Wikipedia mentions something you rarely hear people talking about: Mars has no magnetic field, which means it is unprotected from cosmic radiation, which means that even microbial life is going to have a really hard time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_M ... _radiation

One would think there would be much better odds of life underground. Who knows, there might still be a bunch of liquid water underground.

[go birds]

no im not saying there's intelligent life on mars....if there was i think we'd know by now.

i was asking if it was possible if there was intelligent life a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago and if we found any sort of microbial life, could it be possible thats remnants of said intelligent life.

i was just posing the question: is it possible that intelligent life seeded our planet?

just something to stir the pot i suppose.

[Arthur Dent]

Extremely unlikely. The timeline for that doesn't work. Life appeared on Earth pretty quickly after it and the rest of the solar system formed. And then it took an extremely long time evolve to the necessary complexity for intelligence. Intelligent life wouldn't have time to have formed on Mars in time seed the Earth. More plausibly, there could have been microbes exchanged through space at some point, but that always seemed like a but of wild idea to me.