So I will. Mars exploration has been profoundly boosted by the surprise survival of NASA's very own little WAL-E's, Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Rovers. They were predicted to last about three months in the extreme conditions on Mars, when they landed in January 2004.
But five years later, they are damaged but still operating and performing mission objectives. The results are the equivalent of twenty mars missions and are likely to provide even more data in the next twelve months. They have given so much information that our whole knowledge of the eco-history of Mars has been rewritten.
- We definitely know that Mars continues to have water locked in the subsoil in vast quantities.
- Mars had slowly running water for long enough periods to lay down sedimentary rocks in the past.
- We now know that the basics for life existed in the past and maybe now.
- They have found that there are caves that are warmer than the ground level temperatures, and that are deep enough for different conditions to pertain ..... they won't explicitly say it, but if life survives, its likely to be in deep in caves, where protection from UV rays, atmosphere, temperature, and water may exist in the stable temperatures.
- Snow falls in the Mars atmosphere and water frost forms on the surface.
How Cool Is That?
NB: The European Space Agency has a web cam which is flying through space around Mars, although it hibernates in the winter .... Sadly both Nasa and Esa have announced delays to their next Mars missions so when these brave little rascals pack up, it may be many years before more space craft land on the Red Planet.
"Always with the negative waves Moriarity, always with the negative waves."
ReplyDeleteFantastic movie and so difficult to believe that it's almost 40 years old. Made the same year I was born which reminds me of my own mortality. Ha!
I believe it's inevitable that life exists elsewhere and at some point will be discovered by humans. Whether microbe or large organic being, the scale of the universe is so great that it must allow for it to exist. And I hope I live to see it.
Here's another great quote from Oddball:
"To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich, not some nut who takes on three tigers."
I think it’s an inescapable conclusion that there must be life out there!
ReplyDeleteThere are 70 sextillion (7×10 to the power of 22) stars in the observable universe.... or just 100 billion (10 to the power 11) galaxies.
Whoa that’s a lot ... and if each has just a couple of major planets with a satellite or two, then that’s a lot of empty space without life!
In fact, so common are the ingredients that give the possibilities of life, that our own solar system offers Mars (subsoil microbes), Europa (sea animals e.g. plankton, fish, or crustaceans etc) and Ganymede (sea microbes).
If that’s just one solar system out of 70 sextillion then the possibilities seem strong elsewhere.
So why aren't we hearing from them? Well the universe is huge ... I mean that sucker is BIG! So life could be numerous but intelligent life spread evenly but thinly over the universe.
Any intelligent life at our level of technology may be over 100 light years away or we just are not near enough to intelligent life to notice it.
We ourselves have only transmitted radio waves for approx 100 years (Nikola Tesla 1893) otherwise no one would know there was intelligence (well sorta!) on the Earth.
We are far off the galactic rim, so who would hear us in the 100 light years radius around us? Even if there was a race as advanced as us, it maybe another 100 years before we get a reply.
If on the other hand they were at a level that was pre-industrial, then we may be a few hundred years before we get a reply (assuming they are even interested in dialogue).
So while the conditions for life exists possibly in every solar system, the chances of it being intelligent and technologically advanced enough to be sending signals and close by (within 150 light yrs) are obviously quite small.