spoilsports ping
The search for life out there is distracting our investment funds from resource development.
Then how do we explain the existence of Democrats?
I wonder if the Martians are debating if there is life on Earth!
How much money did the pinheads at NASA spend to figure this out?!
Until we put people there, we'll never know the answer.
And once they are there, of course the question is answered as there will be life on Mars.
So much for objective truth. Same set of "facts", i.e., data, but different conclusions. I wonder if that applies to global warming.
Aw rats. There were some among us who had absolute *faith* that signs of life would be found on Mars.
Yeah? Then where is Democratic Underground broadcasting from?
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Why no mention of the atmospheric pressure and temperature on Mars?
The conditions on Mars are average temperature = -63C, pressure = 4-8 millibar (depending on season).
Water is not very fluid at these conditons, if it can exist at all.
The NASA scientists claiming signs of life on MARS have at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for so doing: it is a much better political "selling point" to keep the dollars flowing than if they found no life (which is much less sensational a headline).
Ping.
"Instead, the studies argue, the layered rock outcrops probed by NASA's robot rover Opportunity and interpreted as signs of ancient water could have been left by explosive volcanic ash or a meteorite impact eons ago."
Yeah, but when you call them that it doesn't drum up much support for NASA spending.
The presence of acidic water and sulfur dioxide would not preclude microbial life.
Mars was 'always cold and frozen'The idea that Mars was once a warm place, awash with oceans that could harboured early life has taken a knock - new data suggests it was always cold, frozen and probably lifeless. A survey of the Red Planet's surface has revealed only traces of carbonates, minerals that should have formed in abundant quantities if Mars once had expansive seas. On Earth, the mineral is found in limestone and chalk deposits around the world. The data was collected by a thermal emission spectrometer (TES) on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and was analysed by researchers at Arizona State University in the US... "We found carbonate, but we've only trace amounts," said team leader Philip Christensen. "This really points to a cold, frozen, icy Mars that has probably always been that way. We believe that the relatively small amounts that we see probably did not come from oceans, but from the [carbon dioxide] atmosphere interacting directly with dust," he said... "We see so much erosion in canyons, and valleys and plains that have been stripped bare," he said. "It seems unlikely that the carbonate rocks could all be hiding out of view. When you look at the entire planet, you'd think that somewhere a little piece would be exposed."
by David Cohen
New Scientist
22 August 2003
