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NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Building Blocks Of Life On Mars
Posted on 6/8/18 at 5:52 am
Posted on 6/8/18 at 5:52 am
Pretty cool article I thought.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. >> New Mars discoveries are advancing the case for possible life on the red planet, past or even present.
Scientists reported today that NASA’s Curiosity rover has found potential building blocks of life in an ancient Martian lakebed. Hints have been found before, but this is the best evidence yet.
The organic molecules preserved in 3.5 billion-year-old bedrock in Gale Crater — believed to once contain a shallow lake the size of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee — suggest conditions back then may have been conducive to life. That leaves open the possibility that microorganisms once populated our planetary neighbor and still might.
“The chances of being able to find signs of ancient life with future missions, if life ever was present, just went up,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. >> New Mars discoveries are advancing the case for possible life on the red planet, past or even present.
Scientists reported today that NASA’s Curiosity rover has found potential building blocks of life in an ancient Martian lakebed. Hints have been found before, but this is the best evidence yet.
The organic molecules preserved in 3.5 billion-year-old bedrock in Gale Crater — believed to once contain a shallow lake the size of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee — suggest conditions back then may have been conducive to life. That leaves open the possibility that microorganisms once populated our planetary neighbor and still might.
“The chances of being able to find signs of ancient life with future missions, if life ever was present, just went up,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
MORE
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Posted on 6/8/18 at 6:17 am to Jazzbo Depew
Paging Kentucker, need someone to tell me what to think of this.
Posted on 6/8/18 at 11:41 am to KSGamecock
Oh how fun it would be if I could plant one of those megladon fossil teeth in the path of that rover. 
Posted on 6/8/18 at 11:51 am to KSGamecock
It seems obvious that microbial life, at least, exists or once existed on Mars. The pics below show what appear to be fossils in meteorites from Mars.
The top one was deemed to be fossilized microbes and President Clinton announced the discovery of life on Mars back in the 1990s. Astrobiologists have since backed away from that claim but not strongly.
Evidence that life is still extant on the planet consists of the regular detection of methane in Mars' atmosphere. It appears seasonally, as one would expect, when Mars' climate goes from Winter to Summer.
Life could very well have originated on Mars first and then travelled to earth via meteorites. Of course, it could have been the reverse as well. It will be a profound discovery if life originated on Mars independent of earth's influence. We'll only be able to tell by comparing Martian life to our own DNA-based biosphere.
The top one was deemed to be fossilized microbes and President Clinton announced the discovery of life on Mars back in the 1990s. Astrobiologists have since backed away from that claim but not strongly.
Evidence that life is still extant on the planet consists of the regular detection of methane in Mars' atmosphere. It appears seasonally, as one would expect, when Mars' climate goes from Winter to Summer.
Life could very well have originated on Mars first and then travelled to earth via meteorites. Of course, it could have been the reverse as well. It will be a profound discovery if life originated on Mars independent of earth's influence. We'll only be able to tell by comparing Martian life to our own DNA-based biosphere.
Posted on 6/8/18 at 1:02 pm to Kentucker
What I like is that each year that passes life seems less and less likely to be a "complex" article -- to say that it isn't that special. Very exciting.
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