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Geobiologist finds potential signs of ancient life in Mars rover photos

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Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Im sure there is life elsewhere, even intelligent life, but finding dead microlife on another planet is not that exciting.

I personally find it terribly exciting! It would be a profound discovery, possibly the greatest of all time in human history.

Why do you think it isn't? o_O
 
I would assume that if there was an ancient civilization on Mars, there would be actual evidence of that, like buildings and structures and shit....not just evidence of microbes having once been knocking around
Certainly, if this civilization existed in the last couple of hundred thousand years. But if a civilization did exist it probably existed millions if not billions of years before that. You've got to remember that 'ancient' from a historical perspective is actually modern compared to the how long Mars has been around.
 
I think that with as fast as technology is exponentially increasing, we'll be able to save the planet.

The final boss is stopping dark energy from destroying the universe.

Let it go.

If we are to live, we must leave Earth behind.
Don't attach to things, even your own home planet.
 
Humanity is going to die, let's not debate that. I don't understand how the great filter can be depressing here, though. As I understand it, Mars didn't have any civilization on it and the core is dead. In that case sure, the great filter applied there, killing whatever life existed.

For us though I mean...we're not there yet. We're working towards it, and can't really say whether or not we'll be off this planet in time. Doesn't eliminate the possibility of us getting off of it altogether though.

I'm speaking from a place of ignorance here (yes I looked at the wiki), but it still seems that these are two totally difference scenarios. Applying one theory to two vastly different forms or levels of life doesn't seem to hold. If anything, it suggests to me that the great filters are totally different things, but I mean...I think in the billions and billions of years that (I think) the universe is going to be around, humans aren't going to be at the end of it anyway. SOMETHING is going to kill us, whether it's super disease tomorrow, nuclear war a few years from now, climate change...you name it.

Edit: Please don't hesitate to hop in and correct anything I'm missing or just dead wrong on. I admit to ignorance, here.
 
No pics? Useless, OP.

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Fig3.jpg

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lol

I rehosted them on imgur for you.

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7JuZKtI.jpg
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Thats only because we're limited to our solar system

It's not amazing because it's in our solar system? I think that makes it exponentially more amazing.. It's so close to us. Literally the next planet over. That would mean that life is common. That the universe isn't just a bunch of stars, instead, it's filled to the brim with life. You look up at the stars at night, and you'll be looking at life all around us. If you don't find that amazing, then I don't know what could amaze you.
 

terrisus

Member
Wouldn't our sun just "push" us further away as it got larger? Like...Wouldn't our orbit just expand?

Even if we're not "inside" the sun, anything that moves us any significant amount away from the zone we're in now isn't going to end too well.
 
It may not consume earth but qll we wouod need to do would be to colonize moons in saturns system. Its going to create a new habitable zone.

Anyways, its so far in the future its not going to matter.

We are not going to colonize anything. If we don't wipe ourselves out in the next 200 years, some catastrophic event will "reset the clock." Look at Atlantis. We've just now almost scratched and clawed our way back to their tech-level.
 

gutshot

Member
Humanity is going to die, let's not debate that. I don't understand how the great filter can be depressing here, though. As I understand it, Mars didn't have any civilization on it and the core is dead. In that case sure, the great filter applied there, killing whatever life existed.

For us though I mean...we're not there yet. We're working towards it, and can't really say whether or not we'll be off this planet in time. Doesn't eliminate the possibility of us getting off of it altogether though.

I'm speaking from a place of ignorance here (yes I looked at the wiki), but it still seems that these are two totally difference scenarios. Applying one theory to two vastly different forms or levels of life doesn't seem to hold. If anything, it suggests to me that the great filters are totally different things, but I mean...I think in the billions and billions of years that (I think) the universe is going to be around, humans aren't going to be at the end of it anyway. SOMETHING is going to kill us, whether it's super disease tomorrow, nuclear war a few years from now, climate change...you name it.

Edit: Please don't hesitate to hop in and correct anything I'm missing or just dead wrong on. I admit to ignorance, here.

The Great Filter is basically a way to explain the Fermi Paradox. It's not something that exists independently on each planet. This is a great read on the whole thing: http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html
 

Foffy

Banned
We are not going to colonize anything. If we don't wipe ourselves out in the next 200 years, some catastrophic event will "reset the clock." Look at Atlantis. We've just now almost scratched and clawed our way back to their tech-level.

Do you think us destroying the biosphere will be the catalyst? I assume it's this or global war that are our biggest resetting mechanisms.
 

gutshot

Member
We are not going to colonize anything. If we don't wipe ourselves out in the next 200 years, some catastrophic event will "reset the clock." Look at Atlantis. We've just now almost scratched and clawed our way back to their tech-level.

Please explain.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
We are not going to colonize anything. If we don't wipe ourselves out in the next 200 years, some catastrophic event will "reset the clock." Look at Atlantis. We've just now almost scratched and clawed our way back to their tech-level.

lol.

I don't have anything else to add.
 
It's not amazing because it's in our solar system? I think that makes it exponentially more amazing.. It's so close to us. Literally the next planet over. That would mean that life is common. That the universe isn't just a bunch of stars, instead, it's filled to the brim with life. You look up at the stars at night, and you'll be looking at life all around us. If you don't find that amazing, then I don't know what could amaze you.

It amazes me.

giphy.gif
 

G.ZZZ

Member
Why would it? Our orbit would expand if the Sun's gravitational pull got weaker, but I don't think the expansion into a red giant involves it shedding any mass, just growing in size.

Actually the Red Giant would disperse a lot of his mass during the growth just because the gravitational pull on the outer layers would be so weak, meaning the solar wind would carry out a signifcant part of the mass of the sun. Also, as the sun get Red Giant, the habitable zone get from Jupiter to Saturn, meaning all of their moons will be potentially habitable planets, even if only for a couple hundred million years.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
We are not going to colonize anything. If we don't wipe ourselves out in the next 200 years, some catastrophic event will "reset the clock." Look at Atlantis. We've just now almost scratched and clawed our way back to their tech-level.

And what, exactly, was the tech level of Atlantis? Serious question by the way....
 

terrene

Banned
The odds of us finding evidence of intelligent life or encountering it are ridiculously, ridiculously low (though not impossible).
The odds of us ever finding intelligent life are "ridiculously low?" Based on what awesome calculations? Do you even know how many planets there are in our galaxy alone?

How long have we even had a space program? Like, 60 years, out of the history of our species? Maybe give it more time to advance than a tiny fraction of our existence? We haven't even set foot on another planet yet.

You have no idea what the odds of anything are.
 
And what, exactly, was the tech level of Atlantis? Serious question by the way....

Out of respect for NeoGaf's expected modus operandi, I'll refrain from taking this conversation even further off topic. I'll be happy to answer your question in a "What, exactly, was the tech level of Atlantis?" thread if such a thing were to exist.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
This is very interesting, even though this would mean that Mars' current surface isn't much different than its surface when life existed. So the fact that it isn't full of evidence of life (like bones or evidence of former flora) means that if there was anything, it wasn't more than just a bunch of microbes, no bigger plants or animals.

Still a huge thing, but I think the public won't be too impressed by that. When they hear extrateresstrial life they think of weird looking life forms, and intelligent life. Most don't know anything about microbes on earth, so they wouldn't be too fascinated by extraterrestrial microbes.

But it would be an indication that life is actually a common phenomenon in the universe.
I'm also pretty sure that our own solar system is the only we could possible find extrateresstrial life. Not that there isn't any anywhere else, but I don't think humanity will ever reach another solar system, they're just too far away.
And observing planets in other solar systems from here doesn't give us enough information.
 

Zona

Member
I think that with as fast as technology is exponentially increasing, we'll be able to save the planet.

The final boss is stopping dark energy from destroying the universe.

You sent out Energy.

The Universe set out Entropy.

Entropy used Thermodynamics... It's super effective!

Energy used The Last Question... INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

Entropy used Thermodynamics... It's super effective!

Energy used The Last Question... INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

Entropy used Thermodynamics... It's super effective!

Energy Fainted.

Go Cosmic AC!

Cosmic AC used The Last Question... SUFFICIENT DATA,
LET THERE BE LIGHT!
It's Super Effective

Entropy Fainted
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Actually the Red Giant would disperse a lot of his mass during the growth just because the gravitational pull on the outer layers would be so weak, meaning the solar wind would carry out a signifcant part of the mass of the sun. Also, as the sun get Red Giant, the habitable zone get from Jupiter to Saturn, meaning all of their moons will be potentially habitable planets, even if only for a couple hundred million years.

Well, the more you know.

How much larger will Earth's orbit be, then?
 

Anjelus_

Junior Member
The odds of us ever finding intelligent life are "ridiculously low?" Based on what awesome calculations? Do you even know how many planets there are in our galaxy alone?

How long have we even had a space program? Like, 60 years, out of the history of our species? Maybe give it more time to advance than a tiny fraction of our existence? We haven't even set foot on another planet yet.

You have no idea what the odds of anything are.



Ok. You're right. We're very likely going to find intelligent life with our inability to reach even the nearest star to Earth, much less explore even a fraction of a percent of the galaxy, we're going to meet an intelligent species that just happens to be in the same "space" and the same "time" as us to make the meeting possible, when we'll only have been a space-faring species for a few thousand years at most (being extremely optimistic), when the galaxy itself has been around for billions, and we will not ourselves become extinct before this meeting takes place.

No, sorry, I do know what I'm talking about here. I didn't say it's impossible, I said the odds are ridiculously low, which they are. There's no "awesome calculations" other than understanding the scale of time and space that we're discussing in this context.


Edit: Even if we find an exoplanet on which intelligent life could evolve, we would have to be there within the timeframe that that life has evolved in in order to meet it. There's been primitive intelligent life on Earth for less than a million years. For most of this planet's history an alien species would have found no trace of life here whatsoever, and for the other part of Earth's history an alien race would have found only the most basic life forms and, -if they were lucky-, complex organisms like, say, a fish. For them to arrive in time to meet -us- would be statistically very improbable. Not impossible, but "ridiculously low" odds like I said.
 
Hahahaha

We'd simply build it one.

http://i.imgur.com/s8QUA2a.jpg
It is kind of weird for me to say that the degradation of Earth's magnetic field is one of the things that concerns me, especially given that it is many millions of years away (polarity reversal aside). But then I realise the immense time scales involved and figure if there are humans around (even if in a technological form) then they would have easily figured out planetary scale geoengineering by then.

And if not then they're likely all extinct anyway, so there would be no one to care.
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Ok. You're right. We're very likely going to find intelligent life with our inability to reach even the nearest star to Earth, much less explore even a fraction of a percent of the galaxy, we're going to meet an intelligent species that just happens to be in the same "space" and the same "time" as us to make the meeting possible, when we'll only have been a space-faring species for a few thousand years at most (being extremely optimistic), when the galaxy itself has been around for billions, and we will not ourselves become extinct before this meeting takes place.

No, sorry, I do know what I'm talking about here. I didn't say it's impossible, I said the odds are ridiculously low, which they are. There's no "awesome calculations" other than understanding the scale of time and space that we're discussing in this context.

There were people with this mindset before people knew the earth was round. We don't know how fast we'll progress through science. There's a phenomenon that people living, will always think they are on the edge of technology. In 50 years, everything will be vastly different. Vastly more advanced. In a couple thousand years, we could be unfathomably further into science than we could imagine. Just think the difference just 2000 years ago, to now. I think it's very possible that human kind will reach another star, before we're done.

That's just my opinion..
 
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