NASA Rover Finds Active and Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars

For those eager to read ahead, they are very, very careful in this article not to imply in any way that this is definitely from any sort of living sources.<p>&gt; <i>Organic molecules, which contain carbon and usually hydrogen, are chemical building blocks of life, although they can exist without the presence of life. Curiosity&#x27;s findings from analyzing samples of atmosphere and rock powder do not reveal whether Mars has ever harbored living microbes, but the findings do shed light on a chemically active modern Mars and on favorable conditions for life on ancient Mars.</i><p>Shame. I for one am looking forward to reading about actual life on Mars within my lifetime. Hopefully active life. We shall see.

Methane outside of earth is more common than I thought it would be (after reading the article): <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane#Extraterrestrial_methane" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Methane#Extraterrestrial_methan...</a>

Here&#x27;s a fun exercise in speculation: How long does HN think it will be between confirming life (e.g. bacteria), confirming life (e.g. mammals &#x2F; bugs), and confirming intelligent life?<p>(Never is an an acceptable answer for all 3, but please state why you hold your position)

I totally understand being very cautious about their findings, but the wording of this paragraph struck me as odd:<p>&gt; The ratio that Curiosity found in the Cumberland sample is about one-half the ratio in water vapor in today&#x27;s Martian atmosphere<p>&gt; <i>suggesting much of the planet&#x27;s water loss occurred since that rock formed</i><p>&gt; However, the measured ratio is about three times higher than the ratio in the original water supply of Mars, based on the assumption that supply had a ratio similar to that measured in Earth&#x27;s oceans<p>&gt; This <i>suggests much of Mars&#x27; original water was lost before the rock formed</i>.<p>So I guess a lot of water was lost both before and after the formation of the rock, and they only have ballpark figures for the hypothetical amounts?

&quot;NASA&#x27;s Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory&#x27;s drill.&quot;

If life is discovered on mars, would we be allowed to colonize it?

It could also be a case of severe alien flatulence. Sorry, I could not resist...

Totally unscientific impulse based speculation, but here it is, I want to be the first.<p>A long time ago (billions of years), our ancestors lived on Mars. The climate was changing due to human activity and shrinking of the Sun. Shit was getting serious and humanity needed a way to escape. The third planet from the Sun was chosen for seeding life into, due to it&#x27;s proximity to the star and life-supporting characteristics.<p>A ball of DNA was sent here to seed the planet. It contained the code for all living things, including humans with the source code for a consciousness able to evolve until it finds out the truth of creation. And here we are, close to finding that out and able to continue what our ancestors left behind billions of years ago, before going extinct. But that is only Step 1. Step 2 is finding out who seeded Mars and the Sun and the Universe. Might just be that it was us all along forever. Good night world ;)