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[lostinblue]

That's not new, I've heard it at least 5 years ago.

Some speculate life on earth came from mars, on a meteorite, such analysis was available a long time ago, the doubt was if they survived the impact or if the bacteria came afterwards.

 

[ClosingADoor]

microscopic worm-like structures

Little brother of

?

 

[Bananakin]

This is really interesting and cool for sure, but we can't say a lot about the prevalence of life in the galaxy unless we can prove that life evolved independently on Earth and on Mars. It's possible that life evolved only on one planet and was then transferred via meteorite to the other (in a similar process to how these fossils reached Earth). In that case it wouldn't tell us anything about how common life is, because we'd still only have one case of life beginning from non-life on a planet.

 

[Nemo]

That's not new, I've heard it at least 5 years ago.

Some speculate life on earth came from mars, on a meteorite, such analysis was available a long time ago, the doubt was if they survived the impact or if the bacteria came afterwards.

 

[AnkitT]

This is old news.

 

[KHarvey16]

It is not common to find a single starred system.

Most stars are binary?

 

[Furret]

Again, our solar system is unique. It is not common to find a single starred system.

I'm not trying to trvialize the finding, but I disagree with saying life is common. It is more common that it was before, but not common in my book, which doesn't mean shit to anyone else.

You need to get a better book.

The only extrasolar planets we can detect are giant-sized ones that would never support life as we know it.

There is nothing to suggest our solar system is unique in anyway whatsoever.

As people have already pointed out, from the four rocky inner planets there's already a 50% hit rate for life.

And that's ignorning the fact that Venus seems to have been unlucky in the way it developed and there is good reason to hope that more than one of the gas giant moons could or does foster life.

 

[qcf x2]

If bacteria life is common on rocky extrasolar planets, our chances of finding intelligent life could be as small as 1 in a thousand.

Maybe, but that's a huge jump. Mars probably looked a lot like earth billions of years ago. A planet with an atmosphere, water, tectonic activity and a temperature suitable for at least some forms of life that we are familiar with, ...I think the only "surprise" here is that it's the first planet we've found with life other than our own, if the hypothesis proves true. It would be great if we found stuff under the ice in Europa, or anywhere on Titan.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

if these guys think that Mars rocks can hit Earth with life on them, it seems logical that Earth rocks could also have landed on Mars with Earth life on them = thus my thinking is all Martian life came from Earth FIN

 

[jmdajr]

almost?

shit is for real yo!

 

[Torquill]

It shows that life is common around earth. To generalize universal expectations based on two planets that are, cosmically, right on top of each other seems premature.

 

[qcf x2]

Would be interesting if viruses (or roaches, but less likely) came from somewhere else, since they are so alien in comparison with everything else.

 

[ToxicAdam]

I've always subscribed to the same theory Panthelotus sort of speaks of. Space is the ocean and the planets are little Galapogos islands. "Life" travels like pollen being carried by wind.

 

[Jangaroo]

Is it weird that I was thinking about the tv show before clicking this thread?

 

[turnbuckle]

Again, our solar system is unique. It is not common to find a single starred system.

I'm not trying to trvialize the finding, but I disagree with saying life is common. It is more common that it was before, but not common in my book, which doesn't mean shit to anyone else.

It's unfair to really say life is common or uncommon with what we know. However, I'm more inclined to lean in the common camp. With limited technology we're on the cusp of proving life existed on our neighboring planet. Also, it's not at all out of the question that life exists on the gas giants within their atmosphere but our ability to find out if that's the case or not is pretty much non-existent thus far. More importantly - the evidence of life in other planets or other periods within our own planet pretty much relies on the fossil record. Unless we have other methods of determining prior life, an inability to find current life on any gaseous planet doesn't mean life doesn't or didn't exist.

However I don't want to get into the argument of trying to prove a negative, but I don't believe this is an argument on semantics either. You said 2 out of 1000000000000000000000 and I said 2 out of 2, but while neither of us can prove a negative we can see that it looks like 100% of the planets that we have the technology to investigate somewhat thoroughly have or had life. Beyond our solar system it's anyone's guess.

 

[Speevy]

You gotta wonder if there's any life on other planets that's even 1% as freaky as our science fiction writers have imagined.

Could it all be bacterial worms or something like "The Mist"?

 

[gunswordfist]

Interesting. I'll have to keep my eye on this.

 

[bengraven]

But have they felt the love of Jesus?

Ha, I came to post something similar:

 

[gunswordfist]

You gotta wonder if there's any life on other planets that's even 1% as freaky as our science fiction writers have imagined.

Could it all be bacterial worms or something like "The Mist"?

If it is then that might motivate me to not live a shitty life anymore so I could prepare to die happy.

 

[lostinblue]

You gotta wonder if there's any life on other planets that's even 1% as freaky as our science fiction writers have imagined.

Could it all be bacterial worms or something like "The Mist"?

Probably freakier, as our science fiction writers always picture them with arms, fingers, head and legs.

Fingers in animals are derivative from fins in fishes, and all that stuff... why would a "alien" who developed in a different scenario have them? that's what every science fiction writer fails to aknowledge... If such reality/possibility is confirmed... then reality is bound to be freakier than fiction, to the point we have dificulty in picturing it without drawing direct comparisons to ourselves and what's common around us.

 

[GaimeGuy]

2 out of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000... is common?

If it can be found on two separate planets in just our own solar system, it certainly suggests that life is a lot more common throughout the universe than we previously thought.

It's either that life is more common than we thought, or our solar system is a double statistical anomally, where the rare phenomenon of life exists in not just one, but two solar bodies.

 

[fallengorn]

Little brother of

?

He who controls the spice, controls the universe! Just what we need to kick the US space program into high-gear.

 

[Xeke]

I highly doubt there is intelligent life out there by our concept of intelligence. Our capacity for what we see as intelligence was devloped by one species on the planet because of a very specific set of evolutionary requirements and the chances of those same paramaters existing other places is slim.

 

[DarthWoo]

If there was intelligent life out there capable of interstellar travel, would they even WANT to contact sapients like us?

 

[gamergirly]

While cool, I hope they're careful with that. Dont want a real life Species

 

[user_nat]

I dunno.. bacteria isn't going to make for very exciting wars.

 

[Speevy]

I dunno.. bacteria isn't going to make for very exciting wars.

Once it's in our brains, the war is over. We'll nuke ourselves.

 

[Furret]

I highly doubt there is intelligent life out there by our concept of intelligence. Our capacity for what we see as intelligence was devloped by one species on the planet because of a very specific set of evolutionary requirements and the chances of those same paramaters existing other places is slim.

Do you have any idea how many stars are out there and what that implies about how many planets there are?

The evolutionary requirements are only specific if you want to get exactly us again.

 

[Speevy]

Maybe we are the microscopic bacteria.

 

[PistolGrip]

If bacteria life is common on rocky extrasolar planets, our chances of finding intelligent life could be as small as 1 in a thousand.

That would mean the universe would be overflowing with life considering the size and amount of planets, the possibilities of different variations of beings would be astronomical.

You gotta wonder if there's any life on other planets that's even 1% as freaky as our science fiction writers have imagined.

Could it all be bacterial worms or something like "The Mist"?

I am pretty sure it will be much much freakier/different than anything we could imagine. I would say 1000000% freakier

 

[Rezbit]

"The sky calls to us...if we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars."

 

[PistolGrip]

If there was intelligent life out there capable of interstellar travel, would they even WANT to contact sapients like us?

I think, like time travel, it is probably impossible to travel those distances unless you dont die and have close to infitine energy. Even then, by the time you get there maybe all the good stuff has already happened. Who knows, maybe we will meet alien life from other galaxies in a a few millions years.

Even Radio waves take a very long time to travel, we are sending signals but it will be thousands of years before it reaches a nice amount of nearby galaxies.

 

[KidGalactus]

If they found it on Earth, how do they know it's from Mars? Or are they just guessing?

But have they felt the love of Jesus?

Ha, I came to post something similar

What happened that broke you on the inside? How is what you said related at all, besides being relate in the sense that it furthers whatever your agenda is?

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

so when to do we get invaded by an army of Earthworm Jim like humanoids seeking revenge for the death of their still developing young?

 

[Mar]

If there was intelligent life out there capable of interstellar travel, would they even WANT to contact sapients like us?

Would they even understand us?

The difference in DNA between humans and apes is 1%. If you look at that and then realise that if aliens were even 1% more intelligent again to us, we'd look like gibbering prehistoric idiots compared to them. If they've mastered space travel then you'd have to imagine that they're much more than 1% more intelligent than we are. Therefore we wouldn't even be on their radar of intelligent life. We'd be just another self propagating life form who's only purpose is to consume everything in it's path.

Which, I'd argue, is exactly what we are.

 

[Mario]

There are thousands/millions of planets. The fact that two of them right next to each other where we happen to live makes it far more probable that life is common than to assume the opposite.

I think it makes more of a statement about the resiliance of life than suggesting life is "common" or indeed anywhere else at all in the Universe.

We know planets within the solar system trade material, and this meteortie demonstrates the possiblity for what is possibly microbial life being something that is transferred (experiments have demonstrated the resiliance of some bacteria in the cold vacuum of space too).

It is therefore possible that life has only arisen once in the solar system and then been seeded to other planets.

This doesn't make the analysis/discovery any less cool, indeed it strengthens the possibility of finding even more complex life forms in the solar system if true (I'm hanging out for alien fish under Europa ice!). But unless we can demonstrate a seperate event of life arising (maybe by indentifying mechanisms different to RNA/DNA), it doesn't necessarily say a lot about the rest of the Universe.

I hope I live to see the day where we find something else out there.

 

[KidGalactus]

The difference in DNA between humans and apes is 1%. If you look at that and then realise that if aliens were even 1% more intelligent again to us, we'd look like gibbering prehistoric idiots compared to them

There is no correlation between these things. Why do you think there is?

 

[Rentahamster]

Would they even understand us?

The difference in DNA between humans and apes is 1%. If you look at that and then realise that if aliens were even 1% more intelligent again to us, we'd look like gibbering prehistoric idiots compared to them. If they've mastered space travel then you'd have to imagine that they're much more than 1% more intelligent than we are. Therefore we wouldn't even be on their radar of intelligent life. We'd be just another self propagating life form who's only purpose is to consume everything in it's path.

Which, I'd argue, is exactly what we are.

Our DNA might be similar (as it is with most living creatures on this planet), but the differences in intelligence between humans and everything else is quite vast.

Apes can't even perform a hadouken for goodness sakes.

 

[sammy]

The question was once "How alone are we?" and now it's "exactly how crowded is it??"

Little brother of

?

fuk yea dawg

 

[KibblesBits]

There is no correlation between these things. Why do you think there is?

Hey... let's not do this in this thread.

 

[bengraven]

"Former" life on Mars.

*sigh*

I wish they could prove there was life NOW.

 

[gofreak]

"Former" life on Mars.

*sigh*

I wish they could prove there was life NOW.

This is why we need to stop pussy-footing around and baby-stepping.

"oooh, lets send a crappy mobile-phone quality camera to mars! awesome!"

Just send the shit necessary to find life if it is there.

I couldn't believe it when they said that the last rover would have drills and ovens and stuff yet wouldn't be capable of determining if there was life or not.

Just send a bloody microscope and start looking!

 

[Zen]

I think it's entirely possible that there's still life on mars (probably not human level life obviously). Simplistic organisms could exist deep underneath the surface.

 

[elrechazado]

Not that I don't believe that it's true, but I'd be fascinated to read how they know this meteorite came from mars.

 

[gofreak]

I think it's entirely possible that there's still life on mars (probably not human level life obviously). Simplistic organisms could exist deep underneath the surface.

There was kind of talk about this recently based on seasonal methane output on Mars. There's two possible explanations for that - geological or biological. A lot of folks seemed to be leaning toward biological, but we cannot be absolutely certain yet.

But it is possible there still is life there, there are possible indirect pointers of it.

 

[DEO3]

How the hell did a piece of Mars wind up on Earth in the first place? And then how the hell did we find it, know what it was, and then think to study it in order to find this out? For some reason that strikes me as way more interesting than the find itself.

 

[Joates]

Again, our solar system is unique. It is not common to find a single starred system.

I'm not trying to trvialize the finding, but I disagree with saying life is common. It is more common that it was before, but not common in my book, which doesn't mean shit to anyone else.

How common is it in your book, and as an aside how much of the universe have you studied

 

[whitehawk]

"That's life? More like a great... soft... sissy... girlie... nancy... French... bender... Man United supporting POOF!!"

I don't like this post.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

If bacteria life is common on rocky extrasolar planets, our chances of finding intelligent life could be as small as 1 in a thousand.

Depends on how you define intelligence. Assuming life has existed on Earth for about 3.5 billion years, human intelligence in the form of modern homo sapiens has only existed for 200,000 years, or 0.0057% of the time life has existed on Earth. Human civilisation, even in its earliest forms, has only existed for around 10,000 years (since the start of the agricultural revolution), or 0.00029% of the time.

The only way your assertion works is if you count intelligence as being on par with the great apes, you’re looking at maybe 4 million years, or 0.11% of the time life has existed on Earth, which is about one in a thousand.

Even if we find a planet teeming with multi-cellular life, chances are, it won’t be intelligent.

Also, I'm of the opinion that if Mars did or does have bacterial life, it was originally seeded by Earth and not vice versa.

 

[Joates]

Depends on how you define intelligence. Assuming life has existed on Earth for about 3.5 billion years, human intelligence in the form of modern homo sapiens has only existed for 200,000 years, or 0.0057% of the time life has existed on Earth. Human civilisation, even in its earliest forms, has only existed for around 10,000 years (since the start of the agricultural revolution), or 0.00029% of the time.

The only way your assertion works is if you count intelligence as being on par with the great apes, you’re looking at maybe 4 million years, or 0.11% of the time life has existed on Earth, which is about one in a thousand.

Even if we find a planet teeming with multi-cellular life, chances are, it won’t be intelligent.

Also, I'm of the opinion that if Mars did or does have bacterial life, it was originally seeded by Earth and not vice versa.

Doesnt your idea assume all life started at the same time/evolves at the same rate throughout the universe? Earth is what 4 or 5 billion yrs old but the universe is closer to 14 billion years old.. just saying other lifeforms could have had a head start (or a delay).

And out of morbid curiosity, why did Earth have to seed mars and not vice versa, or even the possibility of life forming independently on each?