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Sea Sorbust
Skeptic Friend
USA
68 Posts |
 Posted - 12/15/2003 : 08:45:37
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The long-awaited Mars Express is almost there. ESS Beagle 2 lands on 25 December. Soon we might know! 
To see more detail link to Mars Express and watch live streaming of whatever happens! 
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"This is the forest primeval...."  |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 12/15/2003 : 14:24:34 [Permalink]
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I am avidly, nay rabidly, interested in this expedition. Tonight, I will draw the Pentagram of Sacred and Profane Metaphores and sacrifice a Goat (can't find a volenteer virgin). Naked and bathed in the Blood of the Goat, I shall chant the Friggin' Bird and limp (I'm a little crippled and can't dance) around the alter, and humbly beceech whatever God or Demon appears to guide the vehicle to an excellent landing and ensure that all equipment works to perfection.
Life on Mars? Why not? Life here on Earth has shown itself to be able to thrive under some hellish conditions.
On the other hand, there's no reason to expect life will be found. It might be deep underground, far beyoud the reach of today's technology. Or it might not exist at all.
But on the gripping hand, some very interesting, geological and metorlogical discoveries, far more important than mere life, might be made.
Now to pull this off, we've all got to render assistance. So everybody, get out there and steal them goats and get your Pentagrams ready to recieve the Whatever. The conditions on Mars being what they are, Beagle can use all the help it can get.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/16/2003 : 05:17:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
Hey, filthy, make sure your altar is a big freakin' rock. I know mine is.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 12/16/2003 : 09:42:25 [Permalink]
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Life appears to have come into exsistence on the earth as soon as it had cooled, for that reason I would expect life to have exsisted on Mars. Does life exist there now? Probably not, because of the extreme conditions (Very cold, very little water and very thin atmosphere). I would think that there would be some fossil evidence of life, such as the precambrian bacterial colonies found on Earth. The trick is going to be finding the evidence. What a historical moment, if evidence of life is found on Mars. That would basically indicate that life is abundant in the universe.
By the way I have people ask me why we haven't heard radio signals from another world. The truth is there maybe a 'modern' Earth type civilization at one of the nearest stars and we just can't detect them. Below is a quote from the SETI site
quote:
If an extraterrestrial civilization has a SETI project similar to Project Phoenix, could they hear Earth?
In general, no. Most earthly transmitters are too weak to be detectable by Phoenix-type equipment at the distance of even the nearest star. The exceptions are some high-powered radars and the Arecibo broadcast of 1974 (which lasted for only three minutes). To detect "leakage" radiation similar to our own will require instruments that are many times more sensitive than what we now have.
The only chance we have of detecting a signal is if the 'aliens' direct an extremely powerful beam at the Earth.
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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Sea Sorbust
Skeptic Friend
USA
68 Posts |
Posted - 12/16/2003 : 10:57:14 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by furshur
By the way I have people ask me why we haven't heard radio signals from another world. The truth is there maybe a 'modern' Earth type civilization at one of the nearest stars and we just can't detect them. Below is a quote from the SETI site
quote:
If an extraterrestrial civilization has a SETI project similar to Project Phoenix, could they hear Earth?
In general, no. Most earthly transmitters are too weak to be detectable by Phoenix-type equipment at the distance of even the nearest star. The exceptions are some high-powered radars and the Arecibo broadcast of 1974 (which lasted for only three minutes). To detect "leakage" radiation similar to our own will require instruments that are many times more sensitive than what we now have.
Unless they chose to 'listen' in a different way. For example, if they had achieved a stable civilization, they might embark on a very long-term project of sending 'probes' off to various stellar system where, upon arrival, they could 'listen' to the various planets to see if there were any EM transmissions indicative of a technological civilization.
Whether they found indicators of a civilization or not, such a probe would likely be programmed to send data back about the stellar system and either - 'park' in the system or
- head out to scout yet another stellar system.
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"This is the forest primeval...." |
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PruplePanther
Skeptic Friend
USA
79 Posts |
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Espritch
Skeptic Friend
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2003 : 21:56:13 [Permalink]
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I don't really hold out much hope for finding life on Mars. While it is true that life has been found on Earth in some seemingly unlikely places, they all have two things in common. The first is liquid water. On Mars, the low atmosphere pressure combined with the cold temperatures means that water tends to sublimate directly from ice to gas without ever becoming liquid.
There is some evidence to suggest that water may exist in liquid form as salty brine in layers beneath the surface (a theory proposed to explain some apparently recent gullies along some crater walls). However, if true, this still may not be sufficient for life because of the second essential requirement: a source of energy.
Life on earth is mainly powered directly or indirectly by sun light. Those rare communities that are not dependent on sun light(deep sea vent communities, deep earth bacteria, etc.) depend in one way or another on geothermal energy. Life in underground liquid water on Mars would not be able to use sun light. Nor could it rely on geothermal energy since Mars is (by all appearance) geologically dead. There just doesn't seem to be much indication of recent geothermal activity.
So the odds are not in favor of current life on Mars. Of course it is possible that life existed in earlier times, but I'm not sure if the Beagle II has any way to detect signs of former life (I don't think it can look for fossils). Still, I hope it lands and works as planed. Whether it finds signs of life or not, it will fill in a little more of what we don't know about Mars.
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2003 : 18:11:21 [Permalink]
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| Espritch, I couldn't have said it better myeslf. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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