There are prevailing theories about former life on Mars based on evidence of past water-related geologic activity. I am excited by what the rovers are finding, but disagree with the interpretation. The presence of water on the planet means just that. Water was abundant on the planet at some point in the past. But that doesnt mean that it fueled a diverse ecosystem or supported life at any point. In fact, the visible of geology tells me otherwise. Life is the result of change, and it spurs change. As we have learned by studying extremophiles on earth, life doesnt need oxygen, sunlight, or even carbon to thrive. Life just needs any excuse. And wherevere there is (or was) life, there is signs of its impact on the environment. For centuries, from Galileo to Spitzer, we have seen Mars and a red desolate desert planet. What our martian rovers have discovered that the redness is only skin deep. The planets surface os a completely different composition and texture. And the visible features show erosion, but they dont show any chonological evolution or change. Earth has plate tectonics. We have learned that our continents all started as one super continent Pangaea, which over the eons seperated through Continental Drift to their present (and still evolving) positions. Mars lacks such geologic evolution. My theory is that just before the dawn of mankind, Mars was probably a white or pale blue dot in the sky. At some point, like earth, a huge icy comet collided with the planet and the resulting chaos immediately flooded the surface with lakes and oceans. It was a violent change. But one that didnt spur life, like it did millions of years before on earth. With a weak magnetic field and no ecosystem to metabolize the water, the surface was carved by the washing over tens of thousands of years, its own ice age. Which rusted the metal-rich soil. But with no shelter, the water evaporated. With no magnetic field, no ozone was generated to foster greenhouse effects or protect the surface from baking radiation. So the moisture evaporated away from the surface, drying out the way Folsom Lake is now. In fact, the substrate of folsom lake, its basin was anarobic. Walking along the recently dried out surface reminds you of mars. Lifeless and skin deep. Its even arguable that over tens of thousands of years the evaporation of water vapor from mars wouldve pushed out by then violent solar winds and cme burst further out along the solar plane. Eventually trapped into the next planets gravity, Earth. If life had thrived on Mars at any point, we would be looking at a far more interesting surface. We wouldnt see dried lakes and charred riverbeds. We are seeing the remnants of a global flashflood. Its even possible that it wasnt just water but also dry ice/CO2. if so then the atmosphere would contain a greater diversity in composition, indication respiration and metabolism of an ecosystem. Its possible that life could have been wiped out by such a violent chapter in geology. Or it was wiped out by whatever created Olympus Mons. But Mons is millions of years before hand. If there was life on mars, we would have to dig for it. And deep. Look how deep we had to unearth Pompeii. The water would have come much much later, after the planet had been already dead for over a millenia. And thats my theory about life on Mars, Mike Marlow.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 06:54:49 +0000
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