Possible sign of Mars life? Curiosity rover finds 'tantalizing' Red Planet organics

[Admin]

NASA's Curiosity rover has found some interesting organic compounds that may be signs of ancient Mars life, but much more work is needed to vet that hypothesis.

Possible sign of Mars life? Curiosity rover finds 'tantalizing' Red Planet organics : Read more

 

[sam85geo]

Confirming that life evolved on Mars would have very far-reaching repercussions here on Earth.

 

[rod]

Confirming life on Mars is needed in the present or past. Look at this new report on ALH84001 meteorite. https://phys.org/news/2022-01-nixes-mars-life-meteorite-antarctica.html

"A 4 billion-year-old meteorite from Mars that caused a splash here on Earth decades ago contains no evidence of ancient, primitive Martian life after all, scientists reported Thursday. In 1996, a NASA-led team announced that organic compounds in the rock appeared to have been left by living creatures..."

 

[Wolfshadw]

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be safe to say you could pick up a slab of rock here on Earth and determine that there is no evidence of ancient, primitive life in it. If you can find that here on Earth, why would it be a surprise to find a meteor from Mars has the same results?

-Wolf sends

 

[rod]

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be safe to say you could pick up a slab of rock here on Earth and determine that there is no evidence of ancient, primitive life in it. If you can find that here on Earth, why would it be a surprise to find a meteor from Mars has the same results?

-Wolf sends

The point of ALH84001 study was this was rigorous examination from 1996 until present. The same standard of science must be applied to Mars samples too, meteorites or otherwise. If not, we will have a belief system presented to the public concerning life on Mars.

 

[newtons_laws]

Quoting from the article:

"The researchers came up with three possible explanations for the intriguing carbon signal. The first involves Mars microbes producing methane, which was then converted into more complex organic molecules after interacting with ultraviolet (UV) light in the Red Planet air. These larger organics then fell back to the ground and were incorporated into the rocks that Curiosity sampled.

But similar reactions involving UV light and non-biological carbon dioxide, by far the most abundant gas in Mars' atmosphere, could have generated the result as well. It's also possible that the solar system drifted through a giant molecular cloud rich in carbon-12 long ago, the researchers said."

I can see why explanations #1 and #3 would explain a higher proportion of Carbon 12 in the samples, but why would explanation #2 give a higher proportion of Carbon 12 in non-biologically altered carbon dioxide?

 

[sam85geo]

As I recall, life on Earth started approximately >4bya to 3.5bya with the most notable, traceable increase in Earth's life forms starting about .6bya in the Cambrian period. Given the climate conditions on Mars, both past and present, might it not be an illogical expectation to assume Mars rocks would be similar to Earth's for signs of life? In my view, for the development of life with some sustaining ability, the evolutionary process on Mars may never have happened.