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The Mysterious, Deep-Dwelling Microbes That Sculpt Our Planet
- rapjr9 2y agoSo would this be a way to terraform Mars? It would take a few million or billion years, but it would be cheap. There might be ways to speed up the process, for example by introducing multiple bacteria so you don't have to wait for them to evolve into the necessary forms. Start the process near the poles where there is some water. Would require the ability to dig deep holes on Mars. Analyzing samples from the holes might help target the best locations. A side benefit is that this might be a way to discover existing bacterial life on Mars. If life once did exist on Mars, underground seems a likely place for it to have retreated to.
- suzzer99 2y agoFor all we know these critters got their start on Mars, then hitched a ride to Earth on a meteor.
- JohnMakin 2y ago> It would take a few million or billion years, but it would be cheap. Then of what practicality would it be? Humans will not exist in a few million/billion years, at least not in their current form.
- interstice 2y agoTerraformed mars ready for our future corvid derived successors?
- darth_avocado 2y agoHopefully we’ll get Humans 2.0 on Mars in a few billion years that re-evolved natively from microbes. And hopefully they’re wiser than us.
- 7thaccount 2y agoThe sun will eventually expand I think in like a billion years or so. Is there any food on Mars?
- darth_avocado 2y agoMars will experience same level of solar flux in around 5 Billion years. That’s about the same age as life on earth. So there is a chance.
- ProjectArcturis 2y agoYou'd need a source of chemical energy. Here it's hydrogen sulfide. Mars has very little volcanism, so it's unlikely these microbes would find the energy they need.
- Terr_ 2y agoThere's a pretty hard limit in a few billion years when the sun starts expanding. That said, we will probably have much better options just a few centuries out that would leapfrog things anyway.
- oneshtein 2y agoMars is just 0.1 of Earth by mass. Venus is 0.8E. It's much easier to cool down Venus with a shield than to make Mars heavy and hot.
- throwup238 2y agohttps://archive.ph/V5LIm https://archive.ph/V5LIm Wikipedia has a photo of the Thiothrix fibers in an underwater cave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggiatoa#/media/File:Beggiatoa.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggiatoa#/media/File:Beggiato...