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Life on Mars: Japanese astronaut dreams after lake discovery

13 Comments
By Miwa Suzuki

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All life on earth share 4 DNA bases (Adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine), and the L-isomer of 20 amino acids. Other earth biomolecules also share a particular chirality, and immense levels of commonality in biochemical processes such as the biosynthesis of pyruvate and ATP (Krebs cycle), etc.

If we ever found life on another planet that did not share these common Earth traits, it would be phenomenally exciting and fascinating.

And actually, if we ever found life on another planet that DID share these common Earth traits, that would be phenomenally fascinating too. Oh, the questions THAT would raise!

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Also the Martian low gravity would make long term stays also problematic to human health.

Venus might be a better place, NASA also proposed a cloud city type mission. But we might as well terraform/transform Venus rather than wasting our time with Mars that needs too much. Venus doesn't have a magnetic field at all, so similar problem but at least another Tesla emitting satellite would help.

How to change the atmosphere and change its retrograde rotation so that it has days and nights and maybe start the dynamo of a magnetic field. Lots of sci-fi options including bombarding it. Equally hard to do but at least the outcome would be Earth-like with the 0.9 gravity in a few thousand years

Would there even be a humanity left to live there? Or anywhere in the system?

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@albaleo

We are here just for a fraction of Universe's existence. Maybe "right now" we might be the only ones, but there's billions years behind us and at least 2 trillion years to after Planet Earth plus earthlings are long gone. Until the last star alive fades out and eternal darkness happens (in about 2.1 trillion years) life can happen again anywhere... "like popcorn".

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Yeah crazy, that's what I say...

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Is there life on the freezing cold planet of Mars? ( in fact it's cold as hell, according to Elton John )

Not likely, but... it IS POSSIBLE! This is interesting -

A Giant Underground Lake on Mars! | Breaking News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJkYBhSqet8

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The best bet of a place to live outside of Earth is an asteroid with a hollowed out interior, made to spin so we have the right gravity, with enough Tesla emitting machines to remove solar wind radiation. The problem and scale is still immense but at least it's closer and more realistic than planetary transformations

0 ( +1 / -1 )

In the vast universe, anything could be possible.

Including the possibility there is life nowhere else. I'm not sure if that's depressing or inspiring. We still have a lot to learn, which is a good reason to stay alive and find out more.

Ignorance can be bliss.

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Uchuu Kyoudai -- Space Brothers

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9 cm growth, how could that happen depends on how he measures his body, 3 dimensional way, perhaps.

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@Bruno

Until the last star alive fades out and eternal darkness happens (in about 2.1 trillion years) life can happen again anywhere...

I think all we can say is that life can possibly happen again. Until we know how our own life started, we can't attach probabilities. As I tried to say, I'm not sure which is more awesome - that there may be life elsewhere (even in the future) or that there may not be.

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Everybody wanted to own big piece of land and Mars there is an opportunity. If humanity didn't go to Mars to preserve the lake it might be gone.

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The romance of a Martian trip is ruined by the reality that the planet doesn't have a large enough magnetic field to protect people, too thin an atmosphere, and the large amounts of perchlorate chemical in the soil make the planet poisonous. But you have water. Alrightie then

You'd need to put a satellite emitting 2 Tesla's of energy at Mar's Lagrange point in order to cut a piece in the solar wind to give the planet a chance. Even so, the dangerous soil is a reality check that makes the whole idea ruinous.

Think black lung = Mars lung

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