Talk:Life on Mars

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Contents 1 Older comments 2 GA nomination 3 Formaldehyde on Mars 4 Presence of water on Mars 4.1 Recent discovery of fluids flowing on Mars 5 Possible Martian sculptures 6 Sorry for the confusing edits 7 Requested move 7.1 Survey 7.2 Discussion 8 Should move Viking results from "History" to "Modern" section 9 AC Clark

[edit] Older comments

It was my understanding that the controversy about "canals" arose from a mistranslation of an Italian description of "channels," which aren't inherently manmade as canals are. I'm not certain of the provenance of this story, so I'm leaving it aside for someone more knowledgeable to perhaps include. Vivacissamamente 02:20, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

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Moved a bit here, as it makes no sense:

Evidence of such life would tend to bolster the theory of evolution by providing "another example" of a planet where life came out of inorganic materials without divine intervention. Theologians may be hoping that proof of a barren Mars will bolster the commonly-held view that life was specially created by God on the earth (see Evolution and creationism).

Evolution is not synonymous with abiogenesis, so the first paragraph is ill-informed.

The absence of life on Mars would not prove anything particular about life on Earth.

The search for life on Mars is a scientific investigation: philosphers and theologians are distinctly secondary onlookers, not participants, and so have been moved from the topic paragraph to the end. - Nunh-huh 20:03, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

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Just an odd thought, organisms similar to those on earth could easily be possible, such as an endolith which doesn't require oxygen or sunlight, and could survive with only the minerals within the rocks in the martian crust...I don't have scientific evidence, it's just a thought I've thrown out into cyberspace. I guess I can already see a problem with my "theory": what does an endolith evolve from? Does that thing also have the ability to survive or exist on Mars? I'm open to questions, comments, and critisism. - QuiGonJinn18:42:20 (MST), February 18, 2004

• We have good evidence Mars in the distant past was quite wet and warmer than it is now. Life is thought to have begun on Earth soon after conditions for it were right. If life began on Mars also, when it was warm and wet, it may have adapted to cooler and drier conditions, and persisted in rocks and soil under the surface. Jonathunder 19:01, 2004 Dec 5 (UTC)

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"Life on Mars" was also a short-lived (only one year) toy series from LEGO. 16:56, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

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The final section seems poorly worded to me; a political science professor who claims he knows about martian life via remote viewing certainly is not a part of "academia", at least as far as life on Mars goes. Maybe if it was about who would win the presidential elections of 2008. Titanium Dragon 04:48, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GA nomination

I removed this article from the good article nominations page because it lacks an adequate lead section, and also omits a major facet of the topic by neglecting to discuss in any detail the hugely important case of the ALH84001 meteorite. It also needs a lot more about the Viking tests - two of the three tests gave positive results, the third was inconclusive, so there needs to be much more about the subsequent analysis which concluded that the positive results were not in fact due to life. Worldtraveller 21:45, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Formaldehyde on Mars

The ME PFS has been back in operation since November last year.[1] so the text has been updated. --Denoir 20:13, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

• fair enough; my bad. Mlm42 14:30, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Presence of water on Mars

User 146.230.128.29 has inserted a paragraph consisting of speculation dressed up as statements of fact, without quoting sources. This edit is not NPOV and not verifiable (and poorly written), and I suggest we delete it - I will do so if no one objects. Example - "There is life sustaining water on Mars" is at odds with statements elsewhere in the article which claim no evidence has been found for water on Mars now, although it may have been present in the past, and which quote their sources. Example - "1 in 10 million microbes can survive collisions" - what type of collisions, and what is the evidence for this statistic ? Example - "Earth and Mars have probably cross pollinated many times in the past 5 billion years" - what evidence or source if there for this statement ? Example - "Scientists have discovered that there are pockets of ice near the Martian equator" - what evidence or source is there for this statement ? GeraldH 09:14, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

• i agree, and have reverted it. Mlm42 14:45, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Recent discovery of fluids flowing on Mars

Just to nip any speculation in the butt: Recently scientists found evidence for some **fluid** flowing across the surface of Mars see here: [2] and here: [3]. Especially the last article on news.bbc.co.uk suggests that scientists think that liquid carbon dioxide might be the cause of this. Apparently liquid CO2 is thought to exist on Mars. However, I consider this highly unlikely based on this article: [4]. In the graph of carbon dioxide on this page it can be seen that to get liquid CO2 you need a pressure of at least (approx.) 8bar-abs. As far as I know such pressures are not common on Mars ;-). At lower pressures gaseous CO2 will change into solid CO2 (see [5]),this happens at -78°C @ 1bar-abs.

So, before somebody starts suggesting CO2 to be the cause I would suggest they make a very good case for that. Just my €0.02 Mausy5043 18:16, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Possible Martian sculptures

Please check the "see also" link to Possible Martian Sculptures. I think the article is seriously flawed, and have started a discussion about it. Perhaps it should not be linked from this article.

LjL 22:28, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sorry for the confusing edits

I have reverted the "illegal" copy/paste move of this article to Life on Mars (scientific theory), and created Life on Mars (disambiguation). I think each article now has its correct edit history and talk page history.--Srleffler 04:40, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Should move Viking results from "History" to "Modern" section

The [Viking_biological_experiments | Viking experiments] were after all the first experiments looking for Martian life. And I gather the "labeled release" experiment has never been obseleted by subsequent observations. -- KarlHallowell 03:22, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AC Clark

Why is he in and not some scientist? He is not more qualified than most other people.--Stone 10:37, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Good point. It got a lot of attention, because of his high profile, so it's something that casual readers of this article might be expecting to see. I almost removed it, but I don't think the wording gives it too much weight. - DavidWBrooks 17:14, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Removing was a little harsh, but to move it to a seperate section or combine it with a few lines to the article about the "spiders" seen on mars. These are dark dust particle from geysers looking like giant spiderson the lighter sand of mars.--134.76.234.75 17:40, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Hrmmm, I went ahead and deleted it. I don't think idle speculation even by famous people really warrants inclusion. Something like the Cydonia/"face on Mars" stuff is worth mentioning briefly due to how widespread it is. I won't get into an edit war, if Clarke sneaks back in, but I really don't see what that adds. -- KarlHallowell 17:49, 9 November 2006 (UTC)