Right now, it would be astonishing to discover no subterranean life
on Mars. This goes out and makes the argument.
The serious question is not so much that life does exist, but whether
it naturally conforms to terrain life and if any conflicts exist. I
think that the probability is on the side of fairly safe
compatibility because inter planet transport has been shown to be an
real effect.
It is also creditable that life began here as an interstellar
transport to begin with. That still does not answer the question of
first mover, but eliminates the question of life throughout the
universe generally. There is likely no such thing as a barren solar
system and it is merely a function of the availability of congenial
local conditions.
This could mean that our biology is at least compatible with life
everywhere for good or for ill I should warn here. After all, our
biology was quite compatible when Columbus did his thing. Yet Mars
is presently an inoculated planet without the advanced biology we
have. So it may be just fine.
'Strongest evidence
yet to there being life on Mars'
Martian rocks from a
crater hit by a meteorite may contain the strongest evidence yet that
there is life on Mars.
20 Jan 2013
Prof John Parnell, 55,
has co-written a theory with Dr Joseph Michalski, a planetary
geologist at the Natural History Museum, that suggests they have
discovered the best signs of life in the huge McLaughlin Crater on
the surface of Mars.
The document,
published today in Nature Geoscience journal, describes how they
assessed the crater, created by a meteorite which smashed into the
surface of Mars, flinging up rocks from miles below.
The rocks appear to be
made up of clays and minerals which have been altered by water - the
essential element to support life.
Speaking from his
laboratory at the University of Aberdeen, geochemist Prof Parnell
said: "We could be so close to discovering if there is, or was,
life on Mars.
"We know from
studies that a substantial proportion of all life on Earth is also
in the subsurface and by studying the McLaughlin Crater we can see
similar conditions beneath the surface of Mars thanks to
observations on the rocks brought up by the meteorite strike.
"There can be no
life on the surface of Mars because it is bathed in radiation and
it's completely frozen. However, life in the sub surface would be
protected from that.
"And there is no
reason why there isn't bacteria or other microbes that were or still
are living in the small cracks well below the surface of Mars.
"One of the other
things we have discussed in our paper is that this bacteria could be
living off hydrogen, which is exactly the same as what microbes
beneath the surface of the Earth are doing too.
"Unfortunately,
we won't find any evidence of animals as the most complex life you
might get in the sub surface would be fungi.
"But fungi aren't
even that far removed from plants and animals, so I think you could
say that life on Mars could be complex, but small."
Prof Parnell reckons
that although the next mission to Mars will have a drill to examine
possibilities of life beneath the surface of Mars, he says his new
study suggests looking around the edges of craters would be easier
and more beneficial.
He said: "What
we're really doing is emphasising that if we are going to explore for
life on Mars, we need to go beneath the surface. So we need to find
an approach beneath the surface.
"One approach to
do that might be to drill and indeed the next European mission to
Mars will have a drill on it, but that will only go down about two
metres.
"And although
drilling two metres on Earth would be a fantastic technological
achievement, it's only really scratching the surface.
"So the
alternative is to use what nature has done for us and that's why we
are are particularly interested in the McLaughlin Crater that we have
investigated in our paper.
"Because when a
meteor lands, it excavates a big hole in the ground and throws rocks
from the bottom of the hole outside the crater to where we could
conceivably go and sample them."
And while the craters
on Mars may uncover secrets about the planet's possibility of
supporting life, Prof Parnell also revealed the results could show us
how life on Earth began.
He said: "It's
very easy to draw parallels between what Mars looks like and what the
early Earth might have looked like, because the rocks on Earth that
we see now have been recycled a lot in ways that they have not been
recycled on Mars.
"Mars has not had
things like erosion and shifting of mountain ranges to destroy vital
evidence from the past.
"So studying
meteorite craters of Mars may well actually give us an indication to
how life on Earth began.
"Although we all
live on the surface of Earth, life did not originate here, but
actually in the sub surface.
"It was only when
life had taken hold below the surface that it gradually expanded and
came up to the surface.
"In fact, there's
so much life below the surface of our planet that we are actually the
unusual ones living above it."
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