Curiosity rover finds organic carbon molecules on Mars

[Master Disaster]

Not technically "tech news" but imo still worth discussing.

 

So right off the bat let's be clear, this isn't the big discovery of life on another world however this does prove that Mars at least had the potential to support life at some point in its past.

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If you're holding out hope that Mars may have once been an inhabited world, two new studies should put a little spring in your step.

 

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has identified a variety of organic molecules, the carbon-based building blocks of life as we know it, in 3.5-billion-year-old Red Planet rocks, one of the papers reports.

 

"These results do not give us any evidence of life," stressed study lead author Jennifer Eigenbrode, a scientist at the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

 

"But there is a possibility that [the organics] are from an ancient life source; we just don't know," Eigenbrode told Space.com. "And even if life was never around, they [the molecules] tell us there was at least something around for organisms to eat."

A second paper also shows that methane levels on Mars will vary depending on the seasons, something which also happens on Earth too. Scientists are quick to point out that methane can be created by geological processes too so again, this doesn't conclusively prove life exists but it's another indicator that it might.

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The other new paper also details a Curiosity find: that methane concentrations in Mars' atmosphere cycle seasonally. The discovery suggests that this gas, which here on Earth is produced primarily by living organisms, is seeping out from underground reservoirs, study team members said.

 

Again, these results are not evidence of life — methane can also be produced by geological processes — but they are consistent with the presence of Martian organisms, which is exciting in and of itself.

 

"We cannot rule out the possibility that it was created biologically," said study lead author Chris Webster, a senior research fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "We can't say that it was, but we're certainly not dropping that idea. So, in a sense, that's positive for the astrobiologists in the world."

 

Both new studies were published online today (June 7) in the journal Science.

https://www.space.com/40819-mars-methane-organics-curiosity-rover.html

 

Just an FYI, the article goes into much more detail about the whole life on Mars search than what I covered in this post, if you're interested please read the article.

 

It's starting to look like life in the universe might be much more abundant than we think it is. If we can prove our neighbour planet once supported life then the chances of life existing outside of our solar system increases hugely.

 

I think we might be decades away from a huge discovery, once we get people on Mars I think it's only a matter of time before we discover fossils.

 

Thoughts?

[GoldenLag]

i think life on Mars caught solar wind of there being life on earth and they didnt want to be colonized.....

[Pixel5]

that kind of confirms what many scientists believe, it could very well be that we had live on multiple planets in our solar system and even had live in earth that we dont know anything about because it is simply too long ago or we didn't dig deep enough to find the fossils.

 

id say its very likely there was some kind of live on mars and its just a matter of time and technology till we find more proof, we barely scratched the surface of mars, imagine what we can find if we have heavy mining equipment available there.

[NMS]

Those are exciting news! To be honest I wasn't that surprised, since it was speculated before a lot of times that Mars had potential to support life, but this is great nevertheless.

 

Now onto finding traces of life on another objects; Europa..?

[Master Disaster]

Just now, NMS said:

Those are exciting news! To be honest I wasn't that surprised, since it was speculated before a lot of times that Mars had potential to support life, but this is great nevertheless.

 

Now onto finding traces of life on another objects; Europa..?

I believe Titan & Europa are prime suspects for possible life.

[Bananasplit_00]

FERMI PARADOX INTENSEFIES

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

FERMI PARADOX INTENSEFIES

And Drake seems increasingly more accurate.

[GoldenLag]

wonder if AMD is gonna relocate to Mars since they are team RED. 

 

Team Blue will offcourse stay on earth

[NMS]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I believe Titan & Europa are prime suspects for possible life.

Soon we'll get a few more possible answers:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-mission-named-europa-clipper

[Taf the Ghost]

Wait until they find Oil.

[Zandvliet]

I think this is amazing news. It will provide more incentives for future missions, which will hopefully shed light on where life comes from.

I think that in the next 50 years or so we will find prove of life elsewhere, whether it's still living or has been extinct for a couple of billion years (not talking about molecules, but actual living organisms). 

 

28 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I believe Titan & Europa are prime suspects for possible life.

I agree, currently these have the most potential. 

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

that's when China claims the planet, lol

*launches ICBM towards Mars with Chinese flag as Payload

[captain_to_fire]

Take that Ken Ham. Evolution is real! 

Quote

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has identified a variety of organic molecules, the carbon-based building blocks of life as we know it, in 3.5-billion-year-old Red Planet rocks, one of the papers reports.

 

"These results do not give us any evidence of life," stressed study lead author Jennifer Eigenbrode, a scientist at the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

 

"But there is a possibility that [the organics] are from an ancient life source; we just don't know," Eigenbrode told Space.com. "And even if life was never around, they [the molecules] tell us there was at least something around for organisms to eat."

It's possible that those carbon based building blocks are just amino acids which doesn't surprise me. Just like "Out of Africa DNA Theory", the primordial soup theory is the most popular among scientists and academicians and I think it's just what's happening in Mars. The primordial soup theory basically boils down that life on Earth started when extreme conditions like lightning caused inorganic compounds to react and synthesize organic compounds like amino acids which are indeed one of the building blocks of living things. It's possible that Mars is just getting started when it comes to evolution...

 

21 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Wait until they find Oil.

Unless Mars has a sizeable living population that died and got buried, Mars ain't having fossil fuels anytime soon. I'm so tempted to throw a political joke but buzzkill mods will be here.

[GoldenLag]

31 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I believe Titan & Europa are prime suspects for possible life.

wait untill they find fish or Gas. 

 

Norway will be scrambling for those moons

[captain_to_fire]

4 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

that's when China claims the planet, lol

They're claiming the South China Sea territories at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if China lays a hand on Mars. 

[MyName13]

As long as there are no glowing blue molecules we're good

[Taf the Ghost]

Just now, VegetableStu said:

that's when China claims the planet, lol

I'm actually not joking. It's very likely there is oil on Mars, though probably not in any great supply. Crude Oil is a mechanical recycling process of carbon, it's just that on Earth it's "carbon-based life" that gets recycled. (And it's not dinosaurs. It'd be bacteria & algae.)

 

On the "life on mars" topic itself, there already is. The instant Humans landed any foreign planet-based probes, you know a few bacteria hitched a ride. So it's not about finding life, it's about find "life that probably wasn't there before".

[GoldenLag]

5 minutes ago, MyName13 said:

As long as there are no glowing blue molecules we're good

there is. it is called Cherenkov radiation. we have loads of blue glowing molecules on earth. 

 

as long as there are heavy elements on Mars, there will also be molecules capable of glowing blue

[captain_to_fire]

15 minutes ago, MyName13 said:

As long as there are no glowing blue molecules we're good

drinking Prussian blue (used as treatment for radiation poisoning) or colloidal silver (used by pseudomedical homeopaths) can make a person look bluish 

Edited June 8, 2018 by captain_to_fire
prussian blue is one of the treatments for radiation poisoning

[Taf the Ghost]

1 minute ago, VegetableStu said:

OIL PAINTERS ARE ASSASSINS!

And high as a kite most of the time.

[captain_to_fire]

2 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

but isn't cherenkov radiation like an effect when a particle travels faster than the ambient speed of light in a medium? o_o

 

OIL PAINTERS ARE ASSASSINS!

Oh crap I said it wrong. Prussian Blue is used as one of the treatments for radiation poisoning. Edited it now. My bad. 

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, VegetableStu said:

but isn't cherenkov radiation like an effect when a particle travels faster than the ambient speed of light in a medium? o_o

indeed it is. but usually it is noticed in Reactors due to the ampel amount of particles moving around in an enviroment they can go quicker than the speed lights travel through that perticulour medium (since the speed of light is allways C). all you would need is some sort of liquid in the medium.

 

fun fact. when people traveled to the moon, some experienced cherenkov radiation in their eyeballs. they saw it as a flash (might have been regular space mission, not entirely shure)

[asus killer]

it could just be from a meteorite.

Still for sure there are more live out there, it seems unreasonable and self centered to think life on this rock is somehow special, and considering the insane amount of planets in our galaxy alone, not to mention the insane amount of galaxies out there.

[Christophe Corazza]

1 hour ago, VegetableStu said:

but isn't cherenkov radiation like an effect when a particle travels faster than the ambient speed of light in a medium? o_o

 

That’s completely correct. This is a nice example of the Cherenkov effect:

 

1 hour ago, GoldenLag said:

there is. it is called Cherenkov radiation. we have loads of blue glowing molecules on earth. 

 

as long as there are heavy elements on Mars, there will also be molecules capable of glowing blue

 

There are actually several mechanisms that are capable of emitting blue light. Fluorescence, phosphorescence, or photoluminescence can occur when a molecule is excited by absorbing photons and then emits them with a decay time that is characteristic of its environment. Chemiluminescence is the emission of light as a result of a chemical reaction.

[GoldenLag]

3 minutes ago, asus killer said:

it could just be from a meteorite.

Still for sure there are more live out there, it seems unreasonable and self centered to think life on this rock is somehow special, and considering the insane amount of planets in our galaxy alone, not to mention the insane amount of galaxies out there.

special people still excist. there are two types of people. those whom have caught and seen a shiny in pokemon, and those that havent

 

im the latter