2 ms·

"Holes such as this are of particular interest because their interior caves are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good

by htf 14y ago

"Holes such as this are of particular interest because their interior caves are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life" Isn't that grasping at straws a little? I'm not a biologist, but it seems highly unlikely to me that life would develop in a hole 35 meters across.

swombat 14y ago
Life wouldn't develop there, but if life used to cover the surface of Mars, and largely died over time, but was still surviving in some places, this would be one of the likely spots.
- htf 14y ago
  I see. It still sounds like a long shot though for life to survive for a long time in such a small space.
  - adventureful 14y ago
    The caves and small places of Earth say otherwise. So do the intense environments on Earth that we've found life in. It's at least as plausible that life can hang on, sheltered in the smallest of places, as it can anywhere else. Micro organics often don't mind if you put them in a small place, with little sunlight, high or low heat, high or low oxygen, etc. The biggest problem would be if the changes Mars underwent were too fundamentally anti-life for anything to survive whether it was in a cave or anywhere else. In my opinion, we're going to find out on Mars that there are forms of microbes that can hang on in sedentary 'ready' state for a billion years, in extreme environments, just waiting to jump back to activity. Most of Mars will be barren, but there will be small pockets of microbes (most likely in a sheltered cave, under ice, or similar) in a form of extreme suspended animation.
jt2190 14y ago
They're not saying that life developed there, they're saying that if there ever were martian life, this is one of the few places on the planet that has a (relatively) less-severe environment, and therefore a higher likelihood of finding surviving specimens.

by htf 14y ago

swombat 14y ago

Life wouldn't develop there, but if life used to cover the surface of Mars, and largely died over time, but was still surviving in some places, this would be one of the likely spots.

htf 14y ago
I see. It still sounds like a long shot though for life to survive for a long time in such a small space.
- adventureful 14y ago
  The caves and small places of Earth say otherwise. So do the intense environments on Earth that we've found life in. It's at least as plausible that life can hang on, sheltered in the smallest of places, as it can anywhere else. Micro organics often don't mind if you put them in a small place, with little sunlight, high or low heat, high or low oxygen, etc. The biggest problem would be if the changes Mars underwent were too fundamentally anti-life for anything to survive whether it was in a cave or anywhere else. In my opinion, we're going to find out on Mars that there are forms of microbes that can hang on in sedentary 'ready' state for a billion years, in extreme environments, just waiting to jump back to activity. Most of Mars will be barren, but there will be small pockets of microbes (most likely in a sheltered cave, under ice, or similar) in a form of extreme suspended animation.

jt2190 14y ago

They're not saying that life developed there, they're saying that if there ever were martian life, this is one of the few places on the planet that has a (relatively) less-severe environment, and therefore a higher likelihood of finding surviving specimens.