Ice on Mars - Confirmed?

[Zeste]

So they think they have real evidence of ice on mars

Mars Phoenix Tweets: "We Have ICE!" | Wired Science from Wired.com

If this is real, what a discovery to witness! I can't even imagine what would happen if they found some microorganisms or evidence of them.

And, hopefully history adds this to the series of discoveries that puts an end to religion as we know it.

OR - god put ice on mars to test our faith. Either or.

[Hachima]

What would be more interesting is a non DNA based organism.


We all know the god of the Earth follows common OOP principles and codes everything in DNA. He is a fan of making abstract species and deriving from them. Sometimes the subclasses get mutated and the parent class is used instead... Then you end up with a dude with a tail and 6 nipples. Or maybe thats because he just coped pasted code and commented it out... then the comment out stuff gets mutated and is executed. Man the diagrams he must have too....

Maybe thats why life on Mars never succeeded... The god of that planet used some language like BASIC and a million GOTO statements.

[spronk]

we've known for decades there is ice out in space, such as the ice moons of jupiter and saturn or the oort cloud comets. haven't they also already confirmed ice at the polar caps on mars?

even discovery of micro-life wouldn't do much to religion, after all, its fairly easy to say that god created miracles everywhere, that the savior has taken on different forms in different worlds, blah blah blah. faith is not something you can shatter with science.

short of course of finding god in the middle of the galaxy and having a chat

[Burf]

Originally Posted by Hachima

He is a fan of making abstract species and deriving from them.

Maybe thats why life on Mars never succeeded... The god of that planet used some language like BASIC and a million GOTO statements.

Basically, you're saying that God used the Spore creature creator?

[Hachima]

Originally Posted by Burf

Basically, you're saying that God used the Spore creature creator?

Just the demo version

[Hachima]

Originally Posted by spronk

we've known for decades there is ice out in space, such as the ice moons of jupiter and saturn or the oort cloud comets. haven't they also already confirmed ice at the polar caps on mars?

even discovery of micro-life wouldn't do much to religion, after all, its fairly easy to say that god created miracles everywhere, that the savior has taken on different forms in different worlds, blah blah blah. faith is not something you can shatter with science.

short of course of finding god in the middle of the galaxy and having a chat

I think the people that only believe life evolved from some sludge are less scientific than people that believe in some type of creator.

Just think of generations of people like Anders Hejlsberg and Grace Murray Hopper combined with top robotic scientists and biologists having offspring. Anyone that thinks we couldn't reach a point where we could design our own organisms isn't very trusting in science.

There is no chance in our universe of billions of solar systems no one could ever be that smart though? And if they created their own world and designed a book about it it would be a lie though?


I guess as a programmer/data modeling person I would like to believe we could achieve the ability to design something that complex some day.

[Kais[]]

Oh hell, not another religious debate. Just stop.

And finding ice still on the polar caps is akin to finding a record of the last 1000 years of mars history, similar to how ice core samples can tell the atmospheric changes in earths atmosphere over the last couple hundred years, and microorganisms. Do those hypothetical organisms use DNA? Now that's an interesting question. Another interesting notion is that the northern temperate regions (think akin to canada in relation to the north pole, but on mars) is permafrost under about a foot of dust and loose rock. if those ice caps can tell us about the geological and atmospheric history of mars...well, it's interesting stuff indeed.

[Screamfeeder]

ICE ON MARS CONFIRMED!!??

[Eomer]

^lol

Fuck me, the media is really butchering their Phoenix coverage. I've already mentioned this in other threads, but just for posterity:

WE'VE KNOWN FOR A FACT THERE IS ICE ON MARS FOR OVER A FUCKING DECADE. WHY IN THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THEY LANDED PHOENIX WHERE THEY DID? BECAUSE THEY KNEW IT WAS THERE AND RIGHT AT THE SURFACE.

I mean jesus fuck, there's very good reason to believe there is liquid water on Mars as well, in rare cases.

Now, if Phoenix detects some fancy chemicals and amino acids when it cooks samples of that ice in it's ovens, woo, THEN we've got something to talk about.

[Araxen]

Any coverage by the media is good coverage so hopefully it'll build some interest again in NASA and space.

[The Ancient]

Originally Posted by Eomer

Now, if Phoenix detects some fancy chemicals and amino acids when it cooks samples of that ice in it's ovens, woo, THEN we've got something to talk about.

Meth labs on Mars. Story at 11.

[Vim]

Originally Posted by Zeste

And, hopefully history adds this to the series of discoveries that puts an end to religion as we know it.

LOL you're pathetic.

The whole Ice thing is great, but you kinda derailed your own topic. Get with the program Ben!

[Kolle]

my best hope for mars is that they end up finding some kind of bacteria or some shit in the ice and/or water that can't be attributed to having earthly origins. it would be wonderful to have proof that life is capable of starting and existing outside of earth.

[Snugglebear]

Originally Posted by Kolle

my best hope for mars is that they end up finding some kind of bacteria or some shit in the ice and/or water that can't be attributed to having earthly origins. it would be wonderful to have proof that life is capable of starting and existing outside of earth.

I thought I read something recently that found amino acids on a meteor on Earth, suggesting that these building blocks of life had come from space.

[Araxen]

Some pretty stunning pictures here: Martian Skies - The Big Picture - Boston.com