Life on Mars found in 1976?

[carstensdj]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120413-nasa-viking-program-mars-life-space-science/

A fresh look at NASA data suggests that a robotic mission uncovered microbial life on Mars—more than 30 years ago.

In 1976 NASA sent two space probes, Vikings 1 and 2, to Mars to determine whether life exists on the red planet. The probes carried three experiments specially designed for the task, one of which was called the Labeled Release (LR) apparatus.

The LR experiment worked by scooping up a bit of Martian soil and mixing it with a drop of water that contained nutrients and radioactive carbon atoms.

The idea was that if the soil contained microbes, the life-forms would metabolize the nutrients and release either radioactive carbon dioxide or methane gas, which could be measured by a radiation detector on the probe.

A number of control experiments were also performed, including heating some Mars soil samples to different temperatures and isolating other samples in the dark for months—conditions that would kill microbes that are photosynthetic or that rely on photosynthetic organisms for survival. These control samples were also mixed with the nutrient solution.

To the delight of many biologists at the time, the LR experiment came out positive for life, and the control experiments came out negative.

"The minute the nutrients were mixed with the soil sample, you got something like 10,000 counts" of radioactive molecules—a huge spike from the 50 or 60 counts that constituted the natural background radiation on Mars, said study team member Joseph Miller, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California and a former NASA space shuttle project director.

Unfortunately, the LR experiment results were not backed up by the probes' other two experiments, both of which came out negative for life, so the space agency dismissed the possibility.

Now, after running Viking's LR data through a mathematical test designed to separate biological signals from nonbiological signals, Miller's team believes that the LR experiments did indeed find signs of microbial life in Martian soil.

"It's very possible that if you have microbes, they're living a couple of inches beneath the soil, close to water ice," he said.

Clustering Viking's Mars Data

For the study, Miller and mathematician Giorgio Bianciardi, of Italy's University of Siena, used a technique called cluster analysis, which groups together similar-looking data sets.

"We just plugged all the [Viking experimental and control] data in and said, Let the cluster analysis sort it," Miller said. "What happened was, we found two clusters: One cluster constituted the two active experiments on Viking and the other cluster was the five control experiments."

To bolster their case, the team also compared the Viking data to measurements collected from confirmed biological sources on Earth—for example, temperature readings from a rat—and from purely physical, nonbiological sources.

"It turned out that all the biological experiments from Earth sorted with the active experiments from Viking, and all the nonbiological data series sorted with the control experiments," Miller said. "It was an extremely clear-cut phenomenon."

The team concedes, however, that this finding by itself isn't enough to prove that there's life on Mars.

"It just says there's a big difference between the active experiments and the controls, and that Viking's active experiments sorted with terrestrial biology and the controls sorted with nonbiological phenomena," Miller said.

Evidence for Martian Rhythm

Still, the new findings are consistent with a previous study published by Miller, in which his team found signs of a Martian circadian rhythm in the Viking LR experiment results.

Circadian rhythms are internal clocks found in every known life-form—including microbes—that help control biological processes, such as waking, sleeping, and temperature regulation. (See "Sleep Preferences Predict Baseball Success, Study Says.")

On Earth this clock is set to a 24-hour cycle, but on Mars it would be about 24.7 hours—the length of a Martian day.

In his previous work, Miller noticed that the LR experiment's radiation measurements varied with the time of day on Mars.

"If you look closely, you could see that the [radioactive-gas measurement] was going up during the day and coming down at night. ... The oscillations had a period of 24.66 hours just about on the nose," Miller said.

"That is basically a circadian rhythm, and we think circadian rhythms are a good signal for life."

Waiting for the Video

Despite his own conviction that the Viking mission detected life on Mars, Miller said he doesn't expect most people will be convinced until they can look at a video of Martian bacteria sitting in a petri dish.

"But for some reason, NASA has never flown a microscope that would let you do something like that," he said. "If they can fly a microscope for the geologists, they should be able to fly one for the biologists."

NASA's next Martian mission—the Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity—will arrive on the red planet later this year. Although it's not carrying such a microscope, Miller thinks the lander could find supporting evidence for his team's theory.

"It won't test the hypothesis [for life on Mars] directly, but I think they'll be able to detect methane," Miller said. "And if they see a circadian rhythm in the methane release into the atmosphere, it would be very consistent with what we saw."

The new Mars-life research is detailed online in the International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

 

[guest2013-1]

There's water on mars too.... *goes off to find meme*

 

[xrapidx]

I recon it'd be fairly naive to believe that this is the only planet with life on it...

 

[NomNom]

I recon it'd be fairly naive to believe that this is the only planet with life on it...

Agreed, with so many galaxies, stars and planets you can bet there are aliens out there. IMO we should never have sent out those transmissions and should stop trying to contact them since we are pretty much defenseless if they are hostile.

*Gets ready for Stargate marathon*

 

[carstensdj]

I recon it'd be fairly naive to believe that this is the only planet with life on it...

Agreed, with so many galaxies, stars and planets you can bet there are aliens out there.

Yea i completely agree... There's just too much out there for nothing else to exist!

Then you get people who are convinced that we are the only living things out there! Honestly it makes me want to punch them... GRASP THE F*KING IDEA OF HOW MUCH SPACE THERE REALLY IS idiot!

 

[Ninja'd]

The Therns really did a number on the planet.

 

[Valis]

Yea i completely agree... There's just too much out there for nothing else to exist!

Then you get people who are convinced that we are the only living things out there! Honestly it makes me want to punch them... GRASP THE F*KING IDEA OF HOW MUCH SPACE THERE REALLY IS idiot!

Maybe YOU should try grasping the idea of how much TIME there is! The odds against a technological civilisation developing at exactly the same time as ours is astronomical. The Universe has been around for fourteen BILLION years, we've had a technological civilisation for about a hundred years. Do you have ANY grasp of how long fourteen billion years are?

 

[carstensdj]

Maybe YOU should try grasping the idea of how much TIME there is! The odds against a technological civilisation developing at exactly the same time as ours is astronomical. The Universe has been around for fourteen BILLION years, we've had a technological civilisation for about a hundred years. Do you have ANY grasp of how long fourteen billion years are?

Who said ANYTHING about a "Technological Civilization" ?????????????

YOU should grasp literacy!

 

[SaiyanZ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oAVjF_7ensg

 

[NomNom]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oAVjF_7ensg

Seems pretty good.

 

[carstensdj]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oAVjF_7ensg

Seems pretty good.

Buffering in 720p... Will take a look shortly. What exactly is it?

 

[Archer]

Maybe YOU should try grasping the idea of how much TIME there is! The odds against a technological civilisation developing at exactly the same time as ours is astronomical. The Universe has been around for fourteen BILLION years, we've had a technological civilisation for about a hundred years. Do you have ANY grasp of how long fourteen billion years are?

Lol, I'm guessing the number 700 trillion is too small for you then? Only one planet with life is allowed to form in all of those star systems? Epic failure to grasp the size of the universe...

And thats only for a "technological civilization" overlap, nevermind just plain old life which could be anything from some bacteria to intelligent beings.

 

[waynegohl]

Yes there is life out there but to think we are the most advanced seems absurd.

 

[carstensdj]

Lol, I'm guessing the number 700 trillion is too small for you then? Only one planet with life is allowed to form in all of those star systems? Epic failure to grasp the size of the universe...

+1, took the words out of my mouth

 

[carstensdj]

Yes there is life out there but to think we are the most advanced seems absurd.

I agree, It's highly unlikely that we are the most developed living form out there... It's possible, but highly unlikely

 

[ponder]

 

[waynegohl]

If there was a big bang and stuff moved out away from the centre of the big bang and 2 planets or rocks or whatever were moving outwards at the same pace then surely life could have started at the same time on each rock and likewise life might have started on the first rock and also the last rock so why do we think we so "ALL THAT"?

 

[koeksGHT]

Just wait till we start receiving radio transmissions from millions of years ago on earth haha. That alien music xD

 

[SaiyanZ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oAVjF_7ensg

Just to elaborate on this video. The portion of the sky they zoomed in on was the size of a grain of sand held at arms length. Over 10000 visible galaxies in that small a space each with billions of stars and millions of those stars in each galaxy will have habitable planets with moderate temperatures like the earth. It is not possible for us to be the only civilization. There should be millions of civilizations more advanced than us just by looking at the numbers. Either long distance space travel/communication is ultimately impossible because of the vast distances or aliens know we are here and check on our progress from time to time.

 

[DJ...]

If there was a big bang and stuff moved out away from the centre of the big bang and 2 planets or rocks or whatever were moving outwards at the same pace then surely life could have started at the same time on each rock and likewise life might have started on the first rock and also the last rock so why do we think we so "ALL THAT"?

That is far too much of an oversimplification to work with. Firstly, the big bang did not explode rocks or planets outwards. In fact the matter itself was only created in the milliseconds after the big bang in the form of a few gases. Through gravity, these gases over the course of time were responsible for the formation of stars and the subsequent supernovae and various other explosions were responsible for creating other heavier elements and...well...you see how the pattern goes.

While the balance required to create carbon-based life-forms as we are accustomed to is very acute, considering the numbers, it isn't impossible. In fact it's likely. However not for the reasons that you stated. The velocity of gas didn't determine the make-up of matter...