Simple hydrogen peroxide lifeforms.
Posted on 08/23/2007 9:20:12 AM PDT by LibWhacker
The soil on Mars may contain microbial life!
Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, Germany, will declare on Friday the Viking spacecraft may have found signs of a weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface.
His analysis of one of the experiments carried out by the Viking spacecraft suggests that 0.1 percent of the Martian soil could be of biological origin.
That is roughly comparable to biomass levels found in some Antarctic permafrost, home to a range of hardy bacteria and lichen.
Developing....
Mars Attacks!
I bet they’re Democrats
And nothing has evolved, huh? Hmmmm. :-)
Doesn't sound very promising to me. I guess they've tried looking at the soil with a microscope to see if anything is moving around? That'd be a certain sign of life anyway.
I wonder if there’s a race of Bill Mahers oozing about up there.
However the fetus on earth remains a glob of cells that can be desposed of by a woman’s choice.
“life form based on hydrogen peroxide “
Wow, bet they bubble up when poured on a wound.
.....Bob
Waitaminit...Viking??? The landers that reached Mars in 1976??? Didn’t those landers stop working decades ago?
I love the hydrogen peroxide angle. If it turns out to be true, we’ll know for certain it wasn’t caused by cross-contamination!
desposed = disposed
Which Viking mission is this? The probe sent to do digging does not reach mars until september 18 of 2008.
Has Russia made a claim on Mars-Oil-Rights yet?
Martian soil may contain life
By Ben Hirschler in London
August 24, 2007 01:23amThe search for life on Mars appeared to hit a dead end in 1976 when Viking landers touched down on the red planet and failed to detect biological activity.
But Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, Germany, said the spacecraft may in fact have found signs of a weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface.
His analysis of one of the experiments carried out by the Viking spacecraft suggests that 0.1 per cent of the Martian soil could be of biological origin.
That is roughly comparable to biomass levels found in some Antarctic permafrost, home to a range of hardy bacteria and lichen.
“It is interesting because one part per thousand is not a small amount,” Mr Houtkooper said.
“We will have to find confirmatory evidence and see what kind of microbes these are and whether they are related to terrestrial microbes.
"It is a possibility that life has been transported from Earth to Mars or vice versa a long time ago.”
Speculation about such interplanetary seeding was fuelled a decade ago when researchers said an ancient meteorite found in Antarctica contained evidence of fossil life on Mars.
Doubt has since been cast on that finding.
Mr Houtkooper is presenting his research to the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany.
Life, but not as we know it
While most scientists think our next-door neighbour in the solar system is lifeless, the discovery of microbes on Earth that can exist in environments previously thought too hostile has fuelled debate over extraterrestrial life.
Mr Houtkooper believes Mars could be home to just such “extremophiles” - in this case, microbes whose cells are filled with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water, providing them with natural anti-freeze.
They would be quite capable of surviving a harsh Martian climate where temperatures rarely rise above freezing and can fall to minus 150C.
Mr Houtkooper believes their presence would account for unexplained rises in oxygen and carbon dioxide when NASA's Viking landers incubated Martian soil.
He bases his calculation of the biomass of Martian soil on the assumption that these gases were produced during the breakdown of organic material.
Scientists hope to gather further evidence on whether or not Mars ever supported life when NASA's next-generation robotic spacecraft, the Phoenix Mars Lander, reaches the planet in May 2008 and probes the soil near its northern pole.
They took another look at 1970’s Viking data
Probably contamination from our probe . They should be washed with soap and water after each use.
Me too...imagine, a planet full of blondes!
Simple hydrogen peroxide lifeforms.
I’m going to Mars to be a hydrogen peroxide rancher. We’ll crush the Listerine brand with our super-cheap mouthwash. The only problem will be shipping costs. Well, the shipping costs and the destruction of all existing life on earth by hydrogen peroxide based lifeforms overrunning the planet.
Cross contamination from asteroids hitting the earth and the material landing on Mars.
Could be. Could also be old news. What we ought to wonder about is that Mars has no magnetic field of any consequence yet Mars rock has preferred magnetism directions as if Mars had a magnetic field once as it had an atmosphere once. If planetary magnetism is due to the core as is claimed for earth, where did Mars’ magnetic field go? We can discuss Jupiter and the sun.
Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975 and arrived at Mars on June 19, 1976. The first month of orbit was devoted to imaging the surface to find appropriate landing sites for the Viking Landers. On July 20, 1976 the Viking 1 Lander separated from the Orbiter and touched down at Chryse Planitia (22.48° N, 49.97° W planetographic, 1.5 km below the datum (6.1 mbar) elevation). Viking 2 was launched September 9, 1975 and entered Mars orbit on August 7, 1976. The Viking 2 Lander touched down at Utopia Planitia (47.97° N, 225.74° W, 3 km below the datum elevation) on September 3, 1976.
Our Joke Photo Op.
Yep, they’re still looking at the data though. This wouldn’t be the first time someone has announced the data support life on Mars. The guy (can’t remember his name right now) who designed the experiment where they heated up soil samples and looked at the gases that were given off, always thought it proved there was life on Mars.
L
Does that mean poop?
bttt
So basically darling, you've found a blond on ice. Sounds like a Hugh Hefner party to me.
No. That is where the astronauts planted the American flag, according to Rep. Cynthia McKinney.
The Indians, aka Native Americans, Original Settlers, etc.,refer to these craft that deliver stinging bite-like wounds as "No-see-ums."
If true, COOL!
The two probes sent in the 70s. Amazing, but they are still looking at (and reinterpreting) the data.
As no such hydrogen peroxide life forms exist on Earth nor appear to have ever existed here, proof of such Mars based life would be evidence that life is common in the rest of the universe. It would probably take a return mission with a intact samples on board to truly prove the existence of such an exotic form of life.
Horta poo
Those Germans know their poop.
Man, that brings back some memories. My father was working for NASA Langley during the time of Viking, and he was sent out to Pasadena for two weeks to troubleshoot the imager for V1. I have a photo taken by the actual Viking 1 camera of the JPL parking lot. My father also says that somewhere out there is a photo consisting of a landscape with three images of Carl Sagan, after he stood still for one part of the panoramic image, then ran over to the middle of the shot and stood still, then ran over to the far end of the view. The camera panned so slowly, taking one vertical strip at a time, that he was able to show up three times in the same shot.
“I’m going to Mars to be a hydrogen peroxide rancher.”
And give up your dental floss ranch in Montana?
I for one welcome our new hydrogen peroxide microbial overlords.
Joop Houtkooper has discovered how to get increased funding.
Can you put the NOLA Beer Guy in there?
And nothing has evolved, huh? Hmmmm. :-)I see your smile there, but I'll take this opportunity to point out to those who would repeat your words seriously: nothing can evolve under the wracking rays of UV that such a thin atmosphere allows.
many knew the data was consistent with life, originally.
Yup. IIRC, he swore on his deathbed that the results of the tests firmly indicated life was there.
We may very well know absolutely in ten months or so when Phoenix sets down.
Consider how much data is arriving every day from scientific satellites. Much of it is available for the amateur to go over if he wants to download and do whatever analysis he chooses. So much data is already archived that it would keep doctoral candidates in astronomy loaded with possible dissertations for hundreds of years. The data is just sitting, maybe once looked at for a purpose and then filed.
Peroxide Powered!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.