Mar 4, 2021 07:16 PM
What happens if Perseverance finds life on Mars?
https://www.universetoday.com/150222/wha...e-on-mars/
EXCERPTS: . . . Well for starters, the announcement would spread around the world like wildfire. Just imagine the headlines: “Perseverance finds evidence of Martian life!” “Humanity discovers extraterrestrial bacteria!” The excitement would be palpable and would be felt wherever the news reached. Of course, it would also raise some very important questions, the answers to which would have some rather drastic implications.
First of all, there’s the question of whether or not life on Mars is related to life on Earth. If the answer to this question is yes, then scientists would have solid evidence of lithopanspermia, where life is distributed between planets in a star system. Alternately, it could be an indication of panspermia, where life is distributed throughout the cosmos by celestial bodies like asteroids and comets. In this case, it could be argued that Earth and Mars were seeded from the same source (though that would be extremely difficult to prove).
[...] Second, the discovery of evidence for past life on Mars is likely to lend some credibility to the theory that life still exists there today. Much like the disappearance of Mars’ surface water, it is theorized that microbial life could have also migrated underground as a result of changes in the planet’s climate. In fact, research has been conducted that demonstrated how microbes could survive beneath the surface in briny patches of water.
[...] The Perseverance rover will not provide the final word on this subject, but the data it collects and the sample return it will perform will provide an essential piece to the puzzle... (MORE - details)
Raindrops on other worlds are surprisingly like our own
https://astronomy.com/news/2021/03/raind...ke-our-own
INTRO: Rainfall is one of the defining characteristics of our weather, with amounts varying dramatically from one region to another. It shapes both our skies and our landscape, carving valleys while filling rivers and lakes. We know similar processes are also at work elsewhere. Titan, too, has rivers, lakes, valley networks and rain, even though the fluid involved is quite different — liquid methane instead of water.
Mars also seems to bear the marks of rainfall, albeit from some billions of years ago. Although gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn have no surface, raindrops are thought to play a crucial role in the dramatic storms visible on their surfaces because the drops transport heat through the atmosphere. And that raises an interesting question: what of rain on even more distant; how similar is it likely to be to rain on Earth?
Now we get an answer, thanks to the work of Kaitlyn Loftus and Robin Wordsworth, both at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This pair says just three factors determine the size of raindrops in any given atmosphere, regardless of the way the drops form. Because of this, Loftus and Wordsworth say raindrops on other planets are likely to share remarkable similarities to raindrops here on Earth... (MORE)
https://www.universetoday.com/150222/wha...e-on-mars/
EXCERPTS: . . . Well for starters, the announcement would spread around the world like wildfire. Just imagine the headlines: “Perseverance finds evidence of Martian life!” “Humanity discovers extraterrestrial bacteria!” The excitement would be palpable and would be felt wherever the news reached. Of course, it would also raise some very important questions, the answers to which would have some rather drastic implications.
First of all, there’s the question of whether or not life on Mars is related to life on Earth. If the answer to this question is yes, then scientists would have solid evidence of lithopanspermia, where life is distributed between planets in a star system. Alternately, it could be an indication of panspermia, where life is distributed throughout the cosmos by celestial bodies like asteroids and comets. In this case, it could be argued that Earth and Mars were seeded from the same source (though that would be extremely difficult to prove).
[...] Second, the discovery of evidence for past life on Mars is likely to lend some credibility to the theory that life still exists there today. Much like the disappearance of Mars’ surface water, it is theorized that microbial life could have also migrated underground as a result of changes in the planet’s climate. In fact, research has been conducted that demonstrated how microbes could survive beneath the surface in briny patches of water.
[...] The Perseverance rover will not provide the final word on this subject, but the data it collects and the sample return it will perform will provide an essential piece to the puzzle... (MORE - details)
Raindrops on other worlds are surprisingly like our own
https://astronomy.com/news/2021/03/raind...ke-our-own
INTRO: Rainfall is one of the defining characteristics of our weather, with amounts varying dramatically from one region to another. It shapes both our skies and our landscape, carving valleys while filling rivers and lakes. We know similar processes are also at work elsewhere. Titan, too, has rivers, lakes, valley networks and rain, even though the fluid involved is quite different — liquid methane instead of water.
Mars also seems to bear the marks of rainfall, albeit from some billions of years ago. Although gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn have no surface, raindrops are thought to play a crucial role in the dramatic storms visible on their surfaces because the drops transport heat through the atmosphere. And that raises an interesting question: what of rain on even more distant; how similar is it likely to be to rain on Earth?
Now we get an answer, thanks to the work of Kaitlyn Loftus and Robin Wordsworth, both at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This pair says just three factors determine the size of raindrops in any given atmosphere, regardless of the way the drops form. Because of this, Loftus and Wordsworth say raindrops on other planets are likely to share remarkable similarities to raindrops here on Earth... (MORE)