Fossil Found On Mars? Coming Some Day Maybe?

[cronus]

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa- ... ery-solved

NASA will detail a major science finding from the agency’s ongoing exploration of Mars during a news briefing at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 28 at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

News conference participants will be:

· Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters

· Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters

· Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta

· Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and the Georgia Institute of Technology

· Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) at the University of Arizona in Tucson

A brief question-and-answer session will take place during the event with reporters on site and by phone. Members of the public also can ask questions during the briefing using #AskNASA.

To participate in the briefing by phone, reporters must email their name, media affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov by 9 a.m. EDT on Monday.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and to view the news briefing, visit: (Mars...)

(continued)

[laklak]

[Animavore]

The last time NASA said they had big news it turned out to be a massive anti-climax. Not getting hopes up.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

They've probably identified another "exciting" organic compound. But you never know...

[Hermit]

Fossil found on Mars? News? I think not. That was news in 1976. Now it's practically ancient history.

[cronus]

Can't be water since they already know there's water. Unless they need to the hype to keep the public interest and the funding rolling?

[Hermit]

Well, it can't be fossils either, since that's been done decades ago.

[cronus]

They've found some large egg-like objects. Will be bringing them back here on the next mission. Nothing to worry about.

[Rum]

They've probably identified another "exciting" organic compound. But you never know...

I suspect if it was a fossil they would have called an 'emergency' press conference. News like that wouldn't wait.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

It's liquid water - or they think it is. There are salts present in the seasonal streaks on the surface that could lower the freezing point and evaporation rate of water enough for it to remain a liquid.

The downside is - they can't send a probe to those zones because they can't sterilise it well enough to be sure they won't contaminate it with Earth microbes!

[cronus]

It's liquid water - or they think it is. There are salts present in the seasonal streaks on the surface that could lower the freezing point and evaporation rate of water enough for it to remain a liquid.

The downside is - they can't send a probe to those zones because they can't sterilise it well enough to be sure they won't contaminate it with Earth microbes!

In the news ages ago. What is new?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

It's liquid water - or they think it is. There are salts present in the seasonal streaks on the surface that could lower the freezing point and evaporation rate of water enough for it to remain a liquid.

The downside is - they can't send a probe to those zones because they can't sterilise it well enough to be sure they won't contaminate it with Earth microbes!

In the news ages ago. What is new?

Ages ago they thought that was maybe what it was. Now they are pretty close to certain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34379284

[Forty Two]

I doubt they will find any life on Mars.

Imagine if the Earth lost most of its atmosphere and all life died out. The planet would still be rife with signs that life had been there. Even if it was just microbial life, we would see fossil microbes and different chemicals and structure extant that would suggest life had been there. Mars is devoid of any such indications.

The hope they're holding out for is a small one. A tiny one. An infinitessimally small one. They are hoping that life exists in very small, hidden away places that we have to search for. I highly doubt life does that.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I doubt they will find any life on Mars.

Imagine if the Earth lost most of its atmosphere and all life died out. The planet would still be rife with signs that life had been there. Even if it was just microbial life, we would see fossil microbes and different chemicals and structure extant that would suggest life had been there. Mars is devoid of any such indications.

The simplest forms of life - viruses and individual bacteria leave no such indications. "Fossil microbes" are actually the remains of more complex, colonial species. And they have found organic chemicals and proof that liquid water existed (and almost certainly still exists,)

The hope they're holding out for is a small one. A tiny one. An infinitessimally small one. They are hoping that life exists in very small, hidden away places that we have to search for. I highly doubt life does that.

Life does that on this planet! There are microbes flourishing in microhabitats in the most inhospitable regions. A frozen "giant virus", tens of thousands of years old, was thawed out and found to be still viable only the other week. Bacteria thrive in conditions too acidic, alkaline, salty, toxic, radioactive or hot for anything else to live. Bacteria have been found in rock cores from miles below the surface and in subterranean lakes under the Antarctic.

I think it's safe to say that life can cling on to just about any source of nutrients once established.

Life on Mars is a long shot, probably, but by no means infinitesimally small.

[mistermack]

If bacteria were found on Mars, I don't think it would be all that Earth-shaking.

So what? We know that Mars was once much warmer and wetter, with an atmosphere. The appearance of life on Earth was pretty early, according to the best estimates. Not long after the Earth cooled. So why should it be a surprise, if the same applied to Mars?

Life on Earth could have come from spontaneous occurrence, or from a bit of Mars, knocked off by an asteroid and hitting Earth, or from an Asteroid from some previous planet.
Finding life on Mars wouldn't tell you any more about life on Earth. Unless you could do a genetic test, I guess. That might confirm or exclude a link. You would need to be a geneticist to know about that.

As bits of Mars have been found on Earth, then finding life on Mars could explain where life on Earth might have come from. But not how it came about.

If they found fossil life, or even dormant life on an asteroid, that would tell a lot more.

The favoured theory is that the Moon was formed when a Mars-sized object hit the Earth. So maybe there was life on that ? We might never know.