• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

We have done it, it was predicted by many, LIFE ON MARS

Risen

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
3,185
MBTI Type
ISTP
Enneagram
9w8
Mediterranean Microfossils Offer Hope for Finding Life On Mars - US News and World Report

Mediterranean Microfossils Offer Hope for Finding Life On Mars
Discovery on Earth suggests possibility of similar signs of life on the Red Planet

* Share
* Comment
* Print

Posted: April 29, 2010

By Ron Cowen, Science News

Tiny fossils discovered on Earth in samples of sulfates, a class of minerals recently found to be common in some parts of Mars, bodes well for finding vestiges of life on the Red Planet, astrobiologists reported April 28 during a briefing held in conjunction with the Astrobiology Science Conference 2010 in League City, Texas.
Click here to find out more!

Bill Schopf of the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues discovered the fossils in deposits of gypsum, or calcium sulfate, that were deposited in the Mediterranean Sea 6 million years ago and then thrust up into the Alps.

The discovery, which included plankton and single-celled organisms such as cyanobacteria (pond scum), some filling areas tens of micrometers in diameter, was a surprise, he said. Schopf and other researchers had assumed that as sulfate crystals grow, they would crush and obliterate any microfossils that might have been trapped inside the minerals, “but that turned out not to be the case,” he said.

Sulfates are known to be abundant in two large areas on Mars — the Meridiani Planum region explored by the Mars rover Opportunity, and Valles Marineris, a vast system of canyons that was recently examined by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express craft.

Because sulfates form in the presence of water, their abundance on Mars had already intrigued researchers looking for signs of past or present life, notes Jack Farmer of Arizona State University in Tempe. The new discovery “gives us great hope that sulfates on Mars might harbor a similar suite of fossils and information on biology,” he said.

It is conceivable that a robotic craft could collect and analyze sulfate samples on the Martian surface. But astrobiologists are also thinking about getting a much more personal look at pieces of the Red Planet.

During the telephone briefing, Mars rover scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University unveiled a three-stage proposed plan to collect Martian samples and bring them back to Earth. The plan is part of astronomers’ new decadal survey, a blueprint for proposed projects that astronomers submit every 10 years to NASA.

First, a rover would gather samples. Then some time later, another craft would land beside the rover, pick up the material and take it into orbit. Finally, a third ship would rendezvous with the Mars-orbiting craft and bring the material back to Earth.

Dividing the collection and retrieval tasks among three missions spread over a period of several years would reduce the total cost of what would likely be the most complex and expensive robotic mission ever undertaken by NASA, Squyres said. The price tag is a key reason why several other proposed sample-return missions to Mars have never gotten off the ground, he noted.

Well, getting there anyway. First is fossilized microbial life, then living microbial life, then perhaps more complex life, dead or alive. Richard C. Hoagland ftw.
 

BlackCat

Shaman
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Messages
7,038
MBTI Type
ESFP
Enneagram
9w8
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Cool. Can't wait to hear more; this has always fascinated me.
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
Joined
Jan 15, 2009
Messages
6,180
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
Ah yes, I've heard about this about a month or so ago. Good to see more info about it has been put up.:thumbup:
 

gromit

likes this
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
6,508
COOL.


Also,
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueUOTImKp0k"]It had to be posted...[/YOUTUBE]
 

Randomnity

insert random title here
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
9,485
MBTI Type
ISTP
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Cool. You should modify your title though, it's highly misleading. "more hope for finding life on mars" =! "we have found life on mars".
 
Top