DescentBB

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4295475.stm

An Italian scientist working on the Mars Express probe says gases detected in the planet's atmosphere may indicate life exists on the Red Planet today.

Vittorio Formisano told a Dutch space conference methane and formaldehyde could signify biological activity.

The observation is fascinating because the gas is short-lived; it is broken down by sunlight, and should not be detectable unless it is being constantly replenished in some way.

yeah i hear about that a few weeks ago very intresting

The observation is fascinating because the gas is short-lived; it is broken down by sunlight, and should not be detectable unless it is being constantly replenished in some way.

Aliens fart??

SBD Babeh.

Aliens fart??

Microorganisms and Decaying organic matter do, yep.

SBD?

So that's where all those missing cows went!

Silent But Deadly?

Unless vulcanism is producing the methane then the only other source would be organic life. As there are no apparent active vulcanoes on Mars, we are only left with...life. Tie this in to the recent discovery that huge equatorial ice bergs have been found buried under a thin layer of dust. There may very well be a thin interstitial layer of water formed by the sun heating the darker dust covering the ice bergs and micro-organisms may very well be active when the ice melts along this boundary.

there is less sunlight on Mars. Also, what is its atmosphere comprised of?

CO2 iirc

I thought Olympus Mons was an active volcano?

Sting_Ray wrote:I thought Olympus Mons was an active volcano?

Its dead.

It's folly to assume ANY volcano is dead. I believe the Pompeiians were very confident their volcano was dead too. New Zealanders know about this. The North Island contains the volcano which has produced the largest explosion in history (Taupo in 186 AD). It is NOT extinct, and scientists today rank it as the worlds most dangerous volcano as the caldera is buried underneath a lake.

It does seem likely however, that microbial life is extant on Mars. I have said this before, and I'll repeat my prediction that when we find it and analyse it, we will disocover it has DNA which is virtually indistinguishable from the DNA on Earth. Then the Panspermia debate will *really* take off!

FYI: The atmosphere on Mars is around 10 Millibars of pressure at the surface. This makes it about 1% as dense as Earth, and yeah, *almost* a vacuum. You'd pass out inside 10 seconds if you were exposed to it. Its composition is around 96% CO2 from memory.

Shall we say "inactive" for a very very long time in lieu of dead?

You can go here for a little further info:

http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMX67D ... dex_0.html

Very interesting

I wonder if the Catholic government..err I mean church, will try to make'em recant.

Mobius wrote:I believe the Pompeiians were very confident their volcano was dead too.

Something in my memory tells me they didn't know it was a volcano. Not too sure.

woodchip wrote:Shall we say "inactive" for a very very long time in lieu of dead?

Thats what I actually meant. I don't like being taken literally

Testiculese wrote:I wonder if the Catholic government..err I mean church, will try to make'em recant.

Um...what's that supposed to mean? Why would the Church have any problems with life being found elsewhere in the universe?

my greek mythology professor covered pompeii a bit in class when she was showing pictures of her trips to greece and the surrounding areas. i'm not 100% sure, but i do think i recall her saying that when it erupted, it killed so many people because they had no idea it would erupt because they didnt even know it was a volcano. could be wrong though, that class was once a week on a saturday so alot of the time i was dozing.

Top Gun wrote:Um...what's that supposed to mean? Why would the Church have any problems with life being found elsewhere in the universe?

I know what people will likely reply to this, so I'll post a pre-emptive response: the only thing that would cause questions would be if we found intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Bacteria don't really qualify.

Why would the Church have any problems with life being found elsewhere in the universe?

A recent book/movie I read/watched expressed that if life was found on another planet, it would go against everything they've taught. I could go into a big rant here about the Catholic church accepting the order of the universe (orbiting planets), and not evolution yet, so the probably won't accept life on another planet until oh 1000 years from now, but I'm just the messenger. I can't back up the argument or tell you why, s'just what I read.

Nitrofox125 wrote:

Why would the Church have any problems with life being found elsewhere in the universe?

A recent book/movie I read/watched expressed that if life was found on another planet, it would go against everything they've taught. I could go into a big rant here about the Catholic church accepting the order of the universe (orbiting planets), and not evolution yet, so the probably won't accept life on another planet until oh 1000 years from now, but I'm just the messenger. I can't back up the argument or tell you why, s'just what I read.

Wrong again. Evolution fits in with Church teaching and is accepted by the Church. As for the heliocentric model, although Galileo was "officially" pardoned by John Paul II relatively recently, the Church had already accepted the model of a Sun-centered solar system long in the past. And life on another planet would not go against Catholic doctrine.

Oh Jeebus ! Here it goes again ! ...Rapture theologians should dig the news about martian bacteria. (Any one amongst us into Rapture theology ?)

... btw Pompeii is not in Greece, 'in the surrounding area' maybe but not Greece... Central Italy, right on the "shin".

Folks, save the evolution vs. creationism for the E&C forum.

thats what i said ka bong, in the surrounding areas

i think its cool that theres methane on mars. maybe with some more time and money thrown at it, they can find something better than that.

MD-2389 wrote:Folks, save the evolution vs. creationism for the E&C forum.

I don't think that particular topic was ever mentioned, but I will agree with taking the religious stuff there.