Mars Phoenix lander discovers ice on Mars
By Paul Miller 
posted June 19th 2008 10:39PM
posted June 19th 2008 10:39PM
[Via Wired Science]
posted June 19th 2008 10:39PM
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"Where there's water, there is/was life!"
^that's still true right?
No.
Yes, as far as I know.
No. Where there's water, nitrogen, carbon, a little electricity, and the right atmospheric conditions (humid, hot...), there's life.
Mike, if you're referencing the experiment that it sounds like you are, then you are still incorrect. Where there are those things there are amino acids, which is far from life. Still a big jump from amino acids to even the simplest of life forms.
Where's the specs, price, and release date?
No, because any species drinking ice would have to put up with major ice-cream headaches and this would eventually lead to its downfall.
no.. where theres water food and wifi there is life.
That's only a hypothesis. If they find water and life on other planet, then it can become a theory. Then if they ever find the same on a third planet, then it could become a fact. But it usually takes more than three cases before a theory becomes a fact.
@Mike
Don't you think thats narrowminded? For all we know life on other planets could have evolved to live on anything, not specifically water carbon etc... and you can't say its impossible because we have no way of knowing for sure. Think a little bit wider then what was taught in school my friend.
Many of you think of exoplanetary life from a earth like form.
Life is also possible to exist from other materials such as silicon.
Humans.
We know very little and we are very bold.
So we can make unlimited cocktails on mars now? Yes!
Let's put it this way. You said that it produces amino acids. That obviously isn't life. However, does life exist on Earth without amino acids? I know that there are possibly other forms of life- for instance, silicon base. However, have we discovered any life forms on earth that are silicon based?
Just because there isn't evidence that silicon life forms can't exist doesn't mean they can. That is like saying that when a block isn't observed by anyone, it ceases to exist. There's no way to prove it, and yet only assholes who think they know everything say that to contradict people who are trying to make a point.
Carbon is unique in that it can form long chains of hydrocarbons, thus providing a strong backbone for other elements to attach onto. You haven't researched very much into the idea of complex silicon lifeforms if you don't realize that there are many problems for the existence of silicon based life forms.
To quote from http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/19/mars-phoenix-lander-discovers-ice-on-mars/#commentform , "Conceivably, some strange life-forms might be built from silicone-like substances were it not for an apparently fatal flaw in silicon's biological credentials. This is its powerful affinity for oxygen. When carbon is oxidized during the respiratory process of a terrestrial organism (see respiration), it becomes the gas carbon dioxide – a waste material that is easy for a creature to remove from its body. The oxidation of silicon, however, yields a solid because, immediately upon formation, silicon dioxide organizes itself into a lattice in which each silicon atom is surrounded by four oxygens. Disposing of such a substance would pose a major respiratory challenge."
Also, from "Silicon dioxide precipitates in aqueous systems, and cannot be transported among living beings by common biological means.
As such, another solvent would be necessary to sustain silicon-based life forms; it would be difficult (if not impossible) to find another common compound with the unusual properties of water which make it an ideal solvent for carbon-based life."
Also, there has been no evidence in found in extra-terrestrial space rocks (comets, asteroids) that would indicate any possibility of silicon life.
Somebody has been watching too much science fiction.
regardless mike just like you said we have no proof for it but also none against. Granted the odds are slim but billions of years of evolution could have created something out of anything and we can't say it didn't. I understand what your saying but as far as we know there could be a element we don't even know about, granted its all speculation but its also a speculation to essentially say everything would need carbon to support life.
But anyway if people didn't have different views on things we wouldn't be where we are in technology now would we :)
The ice melted there already?
Great ... another planet with Global Warming.
Global whobble?
NONE LIKE IT HOT!
@ieye
best comment ever
um, Ice doesn't melt with negative 300 degree temperatures.. It probably sublimes like dry ice or vaporizes..
The ice "sublimed" or "vaporized" there already?
Great ... another planet with Global Warming.
Hmm... the joke just doesn't have the same ring to it.
If only they found the ice closer to the equator during summer on Mars, then it would've been fine since the Red Planet can reach 80 degrees F. ;)
"Where there's water, there is/was life!"
^that's still true right?
NO!
Well, it may have been true the first time you wrote that, but by repeating it, then it becomes false.
its amazing how things can change in a minute these days...
Viking landers photographed frost on Mars more than thirty years ago. In 2005 Mars Express took a picture of a giant patch of water ice inside a crater. Who the hell cares that Phoenix found something we all knew was there?
You're an idiot. It was assumed to be water ice but could have been methane ice or another organic compound, which, as far as we know, can't support life -- or at least not the kind of life on Earth. This is the first real proof that Mars currently contains water ice -- though it's not exactly proof yet, just an assumption. Time will tell.
i care
Maybe you didn't read the part where they would be sampling the ice/water and not just taking pictures of it?
I couldnt tell you why they just didn't land near that crater.
The existence of water on Mars has never been proven, regardless of what certain grainy photos taken from miles upon miles away in space may have implied.
Mars actually has a very large amount of it's CO2 atmosphere frozen as ice. It migrates between the poles and the atmosphere depending on the season. We've always known there was ice - now we're making sure that there is H2O ice.
The article doesn't actually say anywhere that this is in fact a H2O - water ice.. Says ice everywhere...
Well while typing this, did some research on NASA website:
"Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it. "
=) yay!!
Let's all go! To Mars!
I'll bring the vodak, someone else bring the olives... we can make martianis!
ill have mine on the rocks :D
ill have mine on the rocks! :D
Was it Vanilla Ice?
...Ice Ice Baby !!!
Ha. You know, I keep looking at that picture and expect to see a cigarette butt somewhere in it, I don't know why.
I really hope they find some microbes or something. Would this probe know if it found life? Haven't really kept up on this one at all...
yeah , the probe would know if it found anyything , it has trained for this mission all its life and really enjoys its job . it personally requested to be sent to mars because it had always been its dream since it was a baby probe in tthe probe factory.
@sinjinn: classic
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A
If they find life forms on Mars, I wonder how the intelligent design pundits would respond.
"... uh... God put microbes there... for... uh... humans to discover. Yes."
Would microbes on a nearby planet somehow prove something?
I wonder how atheists like you would respond if their arrogant, narrow-minded, cynical view of the universe was suddenly shattered before their eyes.
@gad get
Yes, because your view on life and why we're here is so much more correct than Changaz.
Give me a break.
Probably in a similar fashion to the way many theist act at the moment.
We'd probably respond by changing our views. You see, unlike theists, atheists believe what they believe due to scientific evidence. Do you have any evidence which will shatter our realistic view of the universe?
My previous comment was in response to gad get, by the way.
get gad:
i dunno... perhaps it means on the 7th day when God said he had a rest, what he really meant was that he put life on earth's next door neighbour.
btw, in case you havent noticed, its called trolling.
Since an atheistic religious argument usually argues against Christianity, I'll do us a favor and say, as a Christian, that the Bible is a chronicle of God's relationship with human life on Earth. Not life on Earth and Mars, or Earth and the Alpha-Centauri System, just Earth.
I'm not trying to argue the existence of God here, I'm just making a point on whether or not life on other planets would make any difference to Christian beliefs.
If you ask an average Christian whether he thought there was life on other planets, he'd probably say "No."
If you asked him whether the bible explicitly says that the only life God ever created was located solely on planet Earth. He'd probably say, "I don't know" or "No".
If you asked a Christian theologian whether he thought there might be life on other planets. He'd probably say. "Maybe or Probably". Because the Bible hints at the fact that we aren't the beginning and end of God's creation.
Therefore finding life on other planets would not affect Christian beliefs since the Bible actually hints at the possibility of life elsewhere, whether its bacteria or intelligent life. Though it would probably surprise most of us.
And for the record, a theologian and a Pastor are not always one in the same.
I personally think it'd be cool if we found life somewhere else and I would not be surprised.
Here's a secret:
Christianity did not always subscribe to the notion that the earth was only roughly 6000 years old, you can take that as Pastors' knee jerk reaction to Charles Darwin. Before Darwin, it was commonly accepted that the Earth was possibly millions or billions of years old, and that the 7 day creation story was actually a re-creation. I don't wanna get into details, but yes that's a little history fact.
I also don't want to get into an argument about whether I'm right or you're wrong about the existence or, non existence of God, or the validity of the Bible, but don't think atheists have a monopoly on intelligent thought regarding the origins of life.