Mars could have supported life

So they are looking for life, but only if it is similar to life on earth,?

Sounds like a bit of a non starter to me then, bearing in mind we cant survive on any planet in our solar system other than earth, and they cant actually probe any further than our solar system.

 

There must have been life on Mars once, my ex-wife came from there she was a right alien

 

Sounds like another job for Iain Duncan Smith.

 

Well probably not exactly like us. There's not much point looking for GC members on Mars, as we know the ground is a bit rubbish for growing stuff in.

I think they're looking for signs that some of our most basic lifeforms could exist there, which they've now proven they could, because the big question is, did life spring up exclusively here, or is the chemical process that resulted in us, a consistent thing that happens wherever the conditions were right, or was there some other as yet unexplained event that made us all pop into existence

We can't probe further than our solar system yet, but in very recent years we've seen some clever kit springing up that has led to the discovery of over 1000 'exoplanets' so far, and there is now talk of them building on that technology with the hope of getting ever increasing amounts of detail.

20 years ago, we didn't even know if there were any other planets outside of the solar system. Now we know about thousands of them. A hundred years ago there were still people who thought the moon might be made of cheese (ok, there probably wasn't, but you know what I mean).

 

About 20 years ago there was actually talk of introducing bugs there on purpose, in an ambitious plan to 'terraform' the planet. I haven't heard anything along those lines since though, so maybe it was officially filed on the 'Daft Ideas' shelf.

 

Very good point, it may already be too late.

 

We could have accidentally contaminated Mars with bugs, which might find a way to survive, thrive and evolve. Then in a billion years or so, long after we're dust, there might be intelligent life there. They might do some science then get all excited when some data comes back showing evidence that the barren third rock from the sun could support primitive life.

 

The search has already found twelve Martisons, Tesconions, and Asdonions plastic carrier bags along with five thousand cigarette filter tips, So the landfill was working

Jack McH

 

Seems like a lot of effort and expense. If they could get all our rubbish into space, wouldn't make more sense to set it on a trajectory that lets the sun suck it up?