Is There Life On Mars?
We have a new baby volcano trying to grow up and become a big, important volcano, up in Iceland. It started, as all such babies do, as a small vent in what is an area full of old, dormant volcanoes, and this particular vent sits on the Atlantic Ridge. Last night (3/23/21), the volcano was extremely active, but this morning has calmed down. It is not going to stop any time soon. The vent itself goes back 6,000 years or more. The last time that vent erupted was about 600 years ago, and the eruption lasted 30 years, hence the rather large, quiet hills around this valley.
Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA-9QzIcr3c
Meantime, Etna, the previously quiet volcano sitting on the island of Sicily not too far from the Navy’s base at Sigonella, decided a couple of years ago to “start something”, and has been outgassing and erupting heavily since then. So far, the damage has been mostly to local housing, although there is footage of some lava rolling down a street. The eruptions do not appear to be stopping any time soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RfBqAHfr8
And one may logically ask, if there is volcanic activity (right now, 32 of them are busy erupting) on Earth, does it happen elsewhere in the solar system?
Well, yes. Yes, it does. We have Voyager photos from the 1990s of ice geysers on one of Saturn’s moons and flyover views of Titan’s surface from the drone that was sent there a while back. But on Mars? That dead ball of red rock and dust? The planet with blue sunsets?
Seriously, something is going on up there on Mars. Even Bowie asked that question, a long time ago.
The video from Anton Petrov (Ontario, teaches maths and physics), says that something is definitely going on. The plume is water vapor, just like Earth clouds, stretches from the Arsia Mons crater about 1200 kilometers until it dissipates, and disappears at night. Only shows up in the Martian summer season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh5NkgKrD2M
Category: It's science!, Science and Technology
Since Ex-PH2 mentioned it, here ya go – Bowie’s question:
Unavailable for comment.
I thought he was quoted as saying something like “Ooooo! This makes me very angry!! Very angry indeed!! Where is the Iludium Pew36 Explosive Space Modulator!!
Below the surface water on Mars?
Must be underground life somewhere.
Worm people. Probably liberals.
Life on Mars? Probably not – yet. We haven’t sent any Libtards there – yet.
I’m still waiting for intelligent life on Earth.
NO life on Mars anymore.
They are living beside me.
After Chuck Norris invented his first rocket, he went to visit Mars. That’s why there is no life on Mars.
Damn a Arsia Mons, give me a Venus Mons anyday. A Venus Mons has caused many an eruption…and plenty of venting. Some have even caused an Earth Shattering KAA—BOOOOM. Or at least it felt like the Earth moved.
Iceland is where God stored all of the left over parts He had when He created the Earth. ‘cept for trees…He didn’t have any leftover trees.
Iceland? Been there, left nothing I need.
Who do you think made the original Mars candy bar.
The Martian Manhunter?!!
I doubt there is life on Mars, but if there is any, I suspect it would be digital life, living in nano scale servers close to the core of planet, powered by the core’s high temperatures.
I mean, for this to be possible, biological life would have to have evolved on the surface of the planet, at some point evolve intelligence, and then become a technological civilization that had enough evolutionary time to create Artificial intelligence and discover nanotechnology.
I guess Mars has been there long enough for all these to happen, but we don’t know if the conditions in Mars in the past were much better than they are today.
In other words, in astrophysics the perception is that the more conductive planetary conditions are towards the evolution of life, the faster life will appear in any given planet and evolve into intelligent life, which in turn would evolve into Artificial intelligence, based on the presumption that intelligence life will always use tools and create technology in attempt to better exploit and modify their natural environment, with natural selection as the mechanism that makes evolution occur.
So, given enough time and good enough conditions, life would evolve on a planet. But planets with less propitious conditions for life would be farther behind in their evolution, and since we don’t know for sure how good conditions for life were in Mars in the past, it is highly unlikely that there is life on Mars, digital or otherwise.
Mars today is too cold and with a very thin atmosphere is open to solar radiation, making life highly unlikely.
Kudos, Joe. That is the most rational, articulate comment you have ever posted here.
There are things living in the superheated water around deep ocean thermal plumes. They eat the sulfur compounds in the volcanic-origin plumes. The water is well above 200 degrees, kept from boiling due to intense pressure.
Amazing.
In the case of Mars, the UV won’t penetrate the soil far, so subsurface life could survive.
Agreed.
But subsurface life would have a hard time evolving intelligence, let alone becoming a technological civilization.
The biggest issue I see is the development of the use of fire, which is critical for transforming raw materials into the usable minerals that propels technological evolution.
Really hard to evolve technologically without using metals, especially iron, which is the most common metal in the known universe.
I would be surprised at multi-cellular life on Mars. Maybe simple invertebrates in some deep cave.
Something around congressional intelligence and spinelessness.
On that, we can definitely agree upon.