[meteorite-list] Ancient bacteria could point to life on Mars

From: Rob McCafferty <rob_mccafferty_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:52:38 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <161490.73429.qm_at_web51008.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Though I cling to my belief that Mars is a dead rock,
the more time goes by the more I realise I know
nothing.
Still, it'd be nice to br right on something.
This debate reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's books
where a discovered microbe was declared "probably
terran".
I seem to remember one of the Apollo crews bringing
back bits of one of the Ranger landers they parked
next to. It had been there for several years in hard
vacuum and sterilised by solar radiation. They found
some gunk a guy had sneezed on it during assembly and
the bugs in it had survived the whole time and came
back to life as sooon as reinserted in a new nostril
(or something)

My biggest problem with extremophile bacteria living
on mars is that many extremophiles on earth I know of
can usually only exist where they do because of the
environment which is created by the vast number of
non-extremophiles. I would consider myself an
extremophile because after years of watching Ray Mears
on TV, I still think I'd die if left in "nature" for
any great length of time. however, my nice little
human created environment only exists if there are
lots of nice trees making oxygen for me to breath.

One again, I am almost certainly way off track but
it's always nice to learn why and and learn something
new.
--- mark ford <markf at ssl.gb.com> wrote:

> Why not?
>
> Remember these space probes are actually (in some
> cases even heated)
> sealed micro environments of their own, (nice for
> transporting
> extreemophile bugs! (+ The usual competition bugs
> have been half killed
> off). We know we have bugs on earth which can
> survive space travel, and
> there are no doubt bugs which could survive for a
> while on mars, so ....
> if they got deep into the soil.... it might take a
> while... but.
>
> Unless we find Martian life that is <totally
> different> to any Earth
> life, there will always be that nagging doubt...
>
> Mark
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill [mailto:glixard at inbox.com]
> Sent: 29 August 2007 10:40
> To: mark ford
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Ancient bacteria could
> point to life on
> Mars
>
> C'mon now Sterling,
>
> If transported earth bugs could survive, we would or
> already do have a
> martian petri dish. That just can't be!
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: markf at ssl.gb.com
> > Sent: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:55:11 +0100
> > To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> > Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Ancient bacteria
> could point to life on
> > Mars
> >
> > Hi Sterling,
> >
> >
> > Indeed, yes it would be nice to find Martian life!
> - though I always
> go
> > back to the great ALH8... saga - front page news
> around the world,
> then
> > two days later everyone went back to watching the
> football! So I doubt
> > that finding alien life would actually resonate
> very much with most of
> > mankind after a few weeks. I my experience most
> people seem to be
> immune
> > from getting very enthusiastic about very much
> these days!!! I
> certainly
> > don't think it would change the human paradigm!
> 3/4 of the population
> of
> > Earth wouldn't believe us anyway...
> >
> > I also have major doubts that they will ever find
> any truly native
> > Martian life anyway, ok They have superficial
> found traces of liquid
> > water/vapor flows , but whoopee doos, the moon has
> traces of water!
> This
> > is not the same as vast oceans of warm stable
> water over many millions
> > of years..
> >
> >
> > Of course it doesn't mean we shouldn't look. But
> sadly I think years
> > from now we will have ended up colonizing (if we
> haven't already!)
> Mars
> > with Earth based bacteria, then it will be next to
> impossible to tell
> > for sure in any case. I am afraid the probe
> sterilization techniques
> > used are way not good enough, I <know> there are
> parts of those
> > spacecraft which couldn't be 100% sterilised... ;)
> >
> >
> > Best
> > Mark Ford
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Sterling K. Webb
> [mailto:sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net]
> > Sent: 28 August 2007 21:12
> > To: mark ford; Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> > Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Ancient bacteria
> could point to life on
> > Mars
> >
> > Hi, Mark, List,
> >
> > Their reasoning is that Mars' permafrost is
> > thermally more stable, heats and cools less than
> > Earth's, I think.
> >
> > The Martian polar regions are about 150
> > degrees K. The Earth's coldest temperatures
> > in, say, Antartica are 185 degrees K. but there's
> > an 80 or 90 degree K rise in the "summer."
> > Water ice may even "melt" temporarily! Ghastly.
> >
> > The Martian CO2 pole experiences only about
> > half that change, and certainly none of that
> flighty
> > "melting" behavior! Earth experiences a 140 degree
> > K annual range of extremes and Mars about a 160
> > degree K annual range of extremes.
> >
> > Since the DNA damage progresses faster at
> > warmer temperatures and the slow DNA repair is
> > carried out at the lower temperatures, it would
> > seem that lower temperature would give it less DNA
> > damage to repair, hence a better chance at
> survival
> > for a longer period.
> >
> > Finding a microbe on Mars, an unequivocal and
> > certain discovery where everyone is forced to
> admit,
> > yes, there is or was or may still be (depending on
> how
> > it's found), Life On Mars would be a major shift
> in
> > the human paradigm, wow!
> >
> > We would argue about What It Means for years
> > and years; it would energize and accelerate space
> > travel; it would make my heart beat too fast and
> I'd
> > take an extra pill, but...
> >
> > It's not the same as having somebody
> Completely
> > Different to talk to. There is our desire to see
> Life
> > everywhere, but if we explored a thousand
> Earth-like
> > planets and found nobody more interesting than a
> > coral polyp or a tiny hydra or jellyfish, I'd be a
> little
> > disappointed. The potential for conversation is...
> > limited.
> >
> > You know?
> >
> >
> > Sterling K. Webb
> >
>
--------------------------------------------------------------
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "mark ford" <markf at ssl.gb.com>
> > To: <Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:40 AM
> > Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Ancient bacteria
> could point to life on
> > Mars
> >
> >
> >>> "When it can live half a million years on Earth
> it makes it very
> > promising it could survive on Mars for a very long
> time," Willerslev
> > said. "Permafrost would be an excellent place to
> look for life on
> Mars."
> >
> > Yeah but call be a cynic, but Surely half a
> million years on earth is
> > environmentally like half a decade on Mars!?
> >
> > Mark
>
=== message truncated ===



       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545469
Received on Wed 29 Aug 2007 01:52:38 PM PDT