More Evidence for Early Oceans on Mars 93
DestroyAllZombies writes "More news about Mars. The good news: New Scientist reports that more analysis of Rover data supports the claims for widespread oceans in Mars' distant past. The bad news, from the article: 'An ocean of water once wrapped around Mars, suggests the discovery of soil chemicals by NASA's rovers. But the same chemicals also indicate that life was not widespread on the planet at the time the ocean was present.'"
That doesn't make any sense. (Score:5, Insightful)
But disregarding that, just because there was a lot of phosphorus in the water doesn't mean that life couldn't exist there. It just means life identical to the structure of life on earth couldn't exist there. Who's to say that life has to be built just the way it is on earth?
Re:If the water was there, where did it go? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:If the water was there, where did it go? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bad news? (Score:3, Insightful)
Having proofs of ancient life on Mars would have put us a step nearer the alien contact. Of course the crowd here is mostly optimistic about aliens intentions
Re:Bad news? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wrong. Anyone who uses scientific method in his research is a scientist. It doesn't matter if he's motivated by dreams of going Kirk with alien females, or gets his kicks from abstract knowledge; purity of motive is irrelevant. The only requirement is the application of scientific method.
In any case, none of this matters. The news is bad for anyone who hoped to find life in Mars. Whether a scientist is allowed to belong to this group is irrelevant.