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#1 2019-11-13 15:56:34

louis
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2008-03-24
Posts: 7,208

Mars and Earth - a partnership in life?

This is a very interesting and informative article:

https://journalofastrobiology.com/Mars5.html

Some take-home points:

1. There are many organisms that survive well in the upper atmosphere...they can eventually move outside the atmosphere into space, where they continue to survive.

2. There is nothing to stop the organisms referred to in 1 above from travelling to Mars and then reaching the Mars surface.

3. Something I knew - but not everyone is aware of this...meteorites can throw up regolith rich in organisms which can be transferred from Earth to Mars or vice versa.

4. Many expert scientists think that there are fungi and lichens on the Martian surface on the basis of photographic evidence.


Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com

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#2 2019-11-13 16:30:47

louis
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2008-03-24
Posts: 7,208

Re: Mars and Earth - a partnership in life?

Fig 8 in the above article is particularly powerful evidence of a fungi-type growth.


Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com

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#3 2019-11-13 17:41:59

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,828

Re: Mars and Earth - a partnership in life?

Fungi have been reported to not being killed on the ISS and we have see other stuff shield when samples were brought back from the moon as well.
The possibility has been seen in some of the images for mars.
We have seen the fluctuation of methane in seasonal context and now we have a seasonal oxygen release as well. Both are indicators of microbial life at a minimum.

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#4 2019-11-13 17:49:18

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,828

Re: Mars and Earth - a partnership in life?

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