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Yeah, I had read that. It could just leak out of subterrane entrapments, as they mention later in the article: > They must have been of Martian origin—perhaps
by blauditore 10y ago
Yeah, I had read that.
It could just leak out of subterrane entrapments, as they mention later in the article:
> They must have been of Martian origin—perhaps a burp from a relatively small and localized subsurface source to the north of the landing site. The Martian winds would blow that methane away over several months, explaining why the signal went away when it did.
- NotSammyHagar 10y agoBut then keep that line of thought going. Mars has the pieces it needs to form dna like molecules, at least in some protected environments, like in the salty almost frozen water slightly under the surface, so there's a very likely possibility of life being related to or similar in process to our life on earth.
- blauditore 10y agoI see what you mean; we know the ingredients (necessary elements and energy) for earth-like life are there. However, we don't know the probability of all the steps leading to life actually taking place in the given time frame. The only reference value we have is earth, so it's just one data point and hardly possible to generalize. And mathematical estimations are difficult due to way too many factors to be considered (I've never seen one actually). At the least we can say that formation of complex structures like DNA is far more complicated and thus less likely to form than methane, by orders of magnitude. So one could argue that it is generally far more likely for methane to be encountered than any (earth-like) life form.