Liquid water on Mars?

[tank slapper]

NASA have posted some interesting pictures on their website that appear to show liquid water flows.



If it is the case, then it's a pretty significant discovery. More information here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/p...

[Eric Mc]

Quite a find.

[BuzzLightyear]

That would be interesting if it's true but I've never understood why scientists always seem to say that water is a pre-requisite for finding life on other planets.

Considering the diversity of life on Earth and the various forms of respiration and habitat which they are adapted to, why can't there be some life-form (does that sound a bit "Trekkie"?) on another planet that has no need of water, oxygen or any of the other standards that apply here?

Can anyone enlighten me?

[Thom987]

BuzzLightyear said:

That would be interesting if it's true but I've never understood why scientists always seem to say that water is a pre-requisite for finding life on other planets.

Considering the diversity of life on Earth and the various forms of respiration and habitat which they are adapted to, why can't there be some life-form (does that sound a bit "Trekkie"?) on another planet that has no need of water, oxygen or any of the other standards that apply here?

Can anyone enlighten me?

Can't enlighten you, but I have always thought along similar lines.

[RacerMDR]

You are spot on. Watching documentaries about creatures found at bottom of our ocean, that 'couldn't' exist , but do.

Snails with metal shells etc.

Psychics might apply, but chemistry is open.

There is no reason to think that other life forms exist, whatever parameters they came from

[BuzzLightyear]

Not quite sure I understand your point there MDR. Perhaps you would clarify?

Btw, I like how this thread is in "Boats,Planes and Trains"

[Eric Mc]

Water is a fairly neutral solvent and one in which many molecules can float free so they can combine and mix with other molecules.

Other solvens are possible, such as ammonia - but water is more abundant in the universe than the others and is the most likely to exist in a liquid stae at a temperature where molecules and cells don't fall apart.

Even extremophiles on earth need water.

If this really is liquid water - then it really does open up the possibilities for life on Mars. Don't forget, it's only a couple of years ago that water was definitely proven to exist on Mars - even though it had been speculated about for four centuries.

[RacerMDR]

BuzzLightyear said:

Not quite sure I understand your point there MDR. Perhaps you would clarify?

Btw, I like how this thread is in "Boats,Planes and Trains"

Sorry Buzz - on the other end of new job celebration :-)

What I meant was, even on our little planet, we keep finding impossible life forms. Creatures that we didn't believe could exist. I watched something about very deep snails that had formed metal shells etc

It was so incredibly humbling.

It just made me think, if on our own tiny planet, life forms can exist outside of our parameters of understanding, how can we begin to comprehend what had evolved in other environments.

Water or otherwise, harsh or otherwise

I think - better?

Need another beer :-)

[Eric Mc]

RacerMDR said:

BuzzLightyear said:

Not quite sure I understand your point there MDR. Perhaps you would clarify?

Btw, I like how this thread is in "Boats,Planes and Trains"

Sorry Buzz - on the other end of new job celebration :-)

What I meant was, even on our little planet, we keep finding impossible life forms. Creatures that we didn't believe could exist. I watched something about very deep snails that had formed metal shells etc

It was so incredibly humbling.

It just made me think, if on our own tiny planet, life forms can exist outside of our parameters of understanding, how can we begin to comprehend what had evolved in other environments.

Water or otherwise, harsh or otherwise

I think - better?

Need another beer :-)

But they still need water.

Or in the case of some humanoid life forms - beer.

[Big Al.]

BuzzLightyear said:

Btw, I like how this thread is in "Boats,Planes and Trains"

Because by routine all space, stars and planetary stuff comes in here.

HTH.

[BuzzLightyear]

Thanks EricMc, I understand that viewpoint but it still seems to me that it is limited to experience of conditions on Earth: Any organism which has survived and evolved on Earth must have done so within this environment.
If another organism evolved on another planet where water and oxygen are not available, or at least not abundant, could it not "live" by some means completely incompatible with ours? Perhaps ingesting Mercury or absorbing nitric acid?

[perdu]

Eric Mc said:

But they still need water.

Or in the case of some humanoid life forms - beer.

I'll drink to that, cheers Eric, et al!

[BuzzLightyear]

Cheers MDR!
thanks for the clarification with which I agree.

Congrats on the new job, too!

[RacerMDR]

Eric Mc said:

But they still need water.

Or in the case of some humanoid life forms - beer.

Yeah, they need water here, but what If on another planet there mercury , or whatever, was our water

Couldn't they evolve in that? Based on what we've learned here?

[tank slapper]

BuzzLightyear said:

That would be interesting if it's true but I've never understood why scientists always seem to say that water is a pre-requisite for finding life on other planets.

Considering the diversity of life on Earth and the various forms of respiration and habitat which they are adapted to, why can't there be some life-form (does that sound a bit "Trekkie"?) on another planet that has no need of water, oxygen or any of the other standards that apply here?

Can anyone enlighten me?

They don't say that water is a prerequisite for life, but that water is essential for every form of life that we have observed so far. It makes sense then to look for places where liquid water exists, as we know for certain that life could exist in it.

It is possible that life could exist using other solvents, but as we have never seen any, it makes it a lot harder to search for and test for.

[didelydoo]

We (humans) don't even have the ability to comprehend how other life forms may exist- we can only work around what we know. There may be other life forms that don't conform to anything our science has even begun to look at.. Chemicals/physics etc may not apply.

Mind boggling.

[dudleybloke]

how long tll the first "martian mineral water" company starts up?
the hoity toity lot would love it! £££££

[db]

i refuse to believe that the only life in the universe is on earth. there is more out there that we'll never see or hear due to the vast distances involved.

i always feel very small when i see this

http://www.co-intelligence.org/newsletter/comparis...

our sun is here

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/20...

within the milky way, 200-400 billion stars and an estimated 50 billion planets. an estimated 170 billion galaxies in the universe.

life reliant on water?

[Eric Mc]

As has been said, because water dependent life is the only life we know - when searching for life we have to look for something we would recognise as life. If there was life on another planet that was nothing like we know or understand, at the moment we would probably not recognise it as life at first.

When the Viking landers searched for life on Mars in 1976, one of the experiments gave a very strong indication that there was something biological happening. However, the results literally fizzled out after a few hours, which would not have happened on Earth, so the conclusion was that the result was due to some chemical reaction rather than a biological reaction.

Mars is an intriguing place with all sorts of hints and indicators that things are going on there that we are only beginning to get an inkling of.

[paulmon]

Richard Burton said:

No-one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No-one could have dreamed that we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes; and slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us.