Evidence of life on Mars may have been erased by geology
There’s nowhere beyond the Earth more tantalizing in the search for evidence of ancient alien life than Mars – a world that was once very much like our own planet with oceans, lakes and rivers.
While today it is an arid, desolate place, scientists have long hoped that evidence of its watery past – and the organisms that may have thrived during that time – can still be found there.
Now though, a new study has revealed that at least some of the potential evidence of past life on Mars may have been erased through geological processes that may be common across the planet.
Clay is often seen as a valuable material in the search for evidence of life – both because it forms when rocky minerals weather away after contact with water and because it is also good at preserving microbial fossils.
When Curiosity recently took samples from ancient mudstone at the site of a dried-up lakebed, however, some of it contained significantly fewer clay minerals that would be expected.
Scientists now believe that brine – which is essentially very salty water – may have leaked into the clay layers and destabilized them, wiping away potential signs of biological life.
“We used to think that once these layers of clay minerals formed at the bottom of the lake in Gale Crater, they stayed that way, preserving the moment in time they formed for billions of years,” said study lead author Tom Bristow. “But later brines broke down these clay minerals in some places – essentially resetting the rock record.”
See more here: unexplained-mysteries.com
Header image: NASA
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Chris*
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To have life on a planet, the first things you need is a magnetic field, gravity and an atmosphere.
Gravity holds the atmosphere down and the magnetic field protects the atmosphere from the solar winds.
Mars does not have a magnetic field and its atmosphere is thin and is 95% Co2 . if there was any smaller atoms such as hydrogen, they have been stripped away by the solar wind.
No hydrogen., no water, no life as we know it.
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Herb Rose
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Hi Chris,
I think it’s a little more complicated. Venus is smaller than Earth (less gravity), is exposed to stronger solar winds, has no magnetic field and yet has an atmosphere 100 times greater than Earth’s.
Herb
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Albert
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This article seems to be confirming that:
1- NASA have failed to find any proof of life or past life on Mars and are therefore blaming the failure on that planet’s geology.
2- With an atmosphere made up of 95% CO2, where’s the greenhouse effect? Does ‘physics’ works only on Earth? Or is the CO2=global warming meme just that? A meme?
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Chris*
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Thanks Herb, I’m sure its a lot more complicated but Venus also has sulphuric acid clouds, which certainly isn’t conducive to life as we know it .
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Andy
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Venus has a 95% CO2 atmosphere as well. Mars has a thin atmosphere and is very cold, Venus has a thick atmosphere and is very hot. The difference is air pressure. If the ‘greenhouse effect’ was real, Mars would be as hot as Venus.
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Chris*
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Hi Andy, Daytime temperatures on Mars are 35C , however night time temperatures -80C.
it just blows the CO2 warming fraud out of existence.
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Howdy
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Every object in space could have life on it. Even a microbe on a dust particle, but nobody is looking remotely that close. Too much like hard work.
A “water bear” can withstand the vacuum of space, so I’m told, but NASA won’t be looking for life like that. Too arrogant. Too small a triumph.
No need to follow Earth-dwellers existence rules either, but Mankind is in a box, and just isn’t as clever as it believes itself to be. This is why one frequently sees headlines containing the phrase, “than previously thought”, “believed possible”, “more than we knew” etc.
The known truth is a very small part of human life.
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Moffin
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Even the religious scientists now accept life on Mars.
https://realclimatescience.com/scientific-consensus-for-life-on-mars/
The Martians are more advanced than earth beings
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