Do we finally have proof of life on Mars?

www.dailymail.co.uk ^ | Updated: 13:36 EST, 16 December 2014 | By Jonathan O'Callaghan

[kjam22]

Short answer is “no”. Unless you just want to say yes because you have an agenda.

[thackney]

Organic material had been detected in 1982

On metors? Were they from Klendathu?

[FourtySeven]

Yes that’s entirely possible. Contamination via the probes we sent there may be one source. Another, is analogous: it’s possible that some meteors from earth landed on Mars, carrying with them bacteria from here.

These will remain viable alternative theories for the reason there is bacterial life on Mars (if it is ever found) until and unless the DNA from such life could be shown to be so exotic that there would be no way it originated here.

In other words the discovery of bacterial life on Mars will not be that groundbreaking in of itself. It will have to be demonstrated that such bacteria came to be and evolved separately and independently in the Martian biosphere. If that could be shown, that would be monumental.

Otherwise we could just be getting excited about some distant cousins of terrestrial bacterial species already known.

[caligatrux]

They say methane spikes on the planet could be produced by bacteria And, at the moment, there is no better explanation for the spikes

Ah, the hubris of man. Just because we aren't aware of any other explanation means that there is no other explanation... at least until we discover another explanation.

[Moonman62]

An instrument on the rover identified spikes of methane that scientists believe may have come from bacteria-like organisms on the surface - and it could be the first alien life ever detected.

...

First contact by flatulence.

SETI has been searching for the wrong signals all along.

[Red Badger]

Organs?...............

[wattsgnu]

If they find it is caused by life, they better kill it before the greenhouse gas causes global warming.

[Red Badger]

[BenLurkin]

[Bratch]

• Nasa scientists in California have revealed evidence for life on Mars 
• They say methane spikes on the planet could be produced by bacteria 
• And, at the moment, there is no better explanation for the spikes 
• The signs were spotted briefly occurring by one of Curiosity's instruments 
• Life is the chief producer of methane on Earth, although there are many non-biological processes that can also generate the gas 
• But no such process could be ruled out during tests - suggesting there may be bacteria living on or under the surface of Mars 

In the past few months, conclusive evidence has been found that Mars once had water on its surface, but one greater question remains: Was there, or is there still, life on Mars as well?

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Definitely maybe.  

[kosciusko51]

Organic in this sense means carbon-containing. It does not necessarily mean from life.

[GeronL]

bump

[Red Badger]

WHere did that pic originate?.............

[Red Badger]

If anything, that pic proves that there are muslims on Mars..............

[Red Badger]

Yeah, we don’t want Mars getting warmer................

[Stingray51]

Scientists mostly accept (I think), that the the massive amounts of methane on other planets and moons is non-biological in origin. Yet they cling to the theory that well over 90% of the methane on Earth is biological, i.e., like all of other oil and gas, it is a “fossil fuel”. Yet we keep finding more and more of it... But the “fossil fuel” theory has been important to the Left as it supports the idea that we are running out of fuel and need to go “green” and ride bicycles and take the bus and so forth...

[RetSignman]

[JimRed]

IIRC, there are anaerobic bacteria here on Earth. Maybe a few colonies of them hitched a ride with our probe and, with no natural enemies on Mars, are in a population boom.

[exit82]

Good one!

[drypowder]

some years back I recall hearing a lady claim to have visited Mars in the spirit and said there is a subterranean society of humanoids inhabiting the planet. What ever it was she took to go on that trip had to be better than LSD. However, that would explain the presence of methane.