My feelings are that there is a "good chance" of life having once been on Mars, but I only have one data point, ie how quickly life started here after the Earth cooled... if we assume that the Werth wasnt terribly unique, then we we have to assume that the possibility of past mars life is very real....
If life existed there, then I agree with your statement that there would probably be some form of life still present somewhere on mars- Think about how wide spread life is here on the Earth- can you imagine any natural or manmade apocalypse that would kill ALL life on earth? As deep as life is found in the crust, The only way I can think of to kill it all is when our sun swallows earth when it goes red giant...
So IF there was life, then I think it is still there- very simple and buried very deep... I dont totally rule out surface life, but it seems unlikely...
I would love nothing more than for us to find life....on mars or anywhere else...
I did read an interesting paper in an astrobiology journal... It made a fairly convincing argument that, statistically, we could expect all complex life on earth to be wiped our every few hundred million years-due to supernovae and gamma ray bursts and impactors...
maybe we are uniquely lucky...
Space/Science » in reply to Will Life Be Found On Mars? Your opinions and guesses:
hmmm
The whole thread (51 posts)
- Will Life Be Found On Mars? Your opinions and guesses:
- Dear friends, thanks for the vigorous discussion. I love it when I start a thread and there are many differing responses. David. (n/t)
- hmmm
- The Martian Race by Greg Benford
- For former life, I'd bet on Venus first
- 50-50
- Yes
- Well
- I follow Lovelock: Equilibrium = Death
- Possibly extremophiles under the surface
- re: Will Life Be Found On Mars? Your opinions and guesses: