Mars Curiosity Rover, despite recent rumors, has not yet found any organic molecules on Mars, while on the positive side, NASA's MESSENGER Mercury mission, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, has found "three independent lines of evidence" that Mercury's perpetually shadowed polar craters contain large amounts of water ice.
H/T TPM for both news items.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
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Well... darn. I was hoping for evidence of life (maybe even Martians)... just think of the ensuing rumpus!
ReplyDeleteellroon, don't give up yet: Curiosity has many a Martian mile to travel, and many a scoop-full of Martian soil to dig. But Mars has never given its secrets easily. Putting aside the puzzlement of the early explorers-by-telescope, think of poor Carl Sagan: the man spent much of his life seeking life elsewhere than Earth, and being the honest soul he was, he had to admit he didn't find it on Mars. We may all ultimately be disappointed. Or Mars may provide us the thrill of our lives someday!
DeleteOr... ellroon... how would you feel if Mars contained no organic matter, but was suitable for human colonization? Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla Motors, etc.) announced recently that he'd like to put a colony of about 80,000 people on Mars... date not announced, but price per person for travel would be about $500,000. Maybe we could send the entire 1% ...
DeleteMars ay be a lost cause.I wonder what's under Europa's ice though
ReplyDeletejams - shades of "2001" (the movie or the novel)!
DeleteThe chemistry may be there, beneath the ice on Europa, but I doubt seriously that life could emerge in such a low-energy situation. But who knows, really!