My son is four and full of crazy mad wisdom. He told me the other day that the sun is a giant flashlight. Wise, I told you.
Yesterday, we were playing in the snow, and he was walking across the fresh snow in circles, making planets. He made a circle with his footprints(or hoofprints as he would call them) and then started making snow angels on the side of the circle.
I asked him what he was doing, and he said the planet was Mars, and he was making aliens.
I told him that there is no life on Mars, and he insisted that "Yes, there is!"
How did that hold over belief reach my four year old? I blame NASA.
~Sheena
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Well, there is no known life on mars. And certainly complex life is so unlikely we assume the probability is zero for a great many of valid reasons. I'm certain there is, presently, no life on mars. (Though that doesn't mean I'm right.)
BUT... as a point of interest.
Some recent photos from our latest mars explorer show what appear to be drops of water on mars. It might well be water, if it is so "salty" it resists freezing.
I thought the atomspheric pressure was so thin that water goes from a solid to gasous state, much like how dry ice does on Earth. I don't believe liquid water is possible in todays martian atmosphere.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Regular ice does that too, snapper, though it happens so slowly that it's not very noticeable. It's called sublimation, and one of the results is when there is a little shelf of ice along the edge of the snow--say along a sidewalk that's been shovelled.
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Well if we encounter water through direct exploration then we have to re-evaluate our suppositions to explain it. (If we can be sure this is water, which is might well be.)
[This message has been edited by Zero (edited February 24, 2009).]
Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :
I have read several articles recently proposing that flowing water and volcanic activity could still exist below the planet's surface. I believe this is highly speculative, but I find it interesting that various world space organizations are endeavoring to explore this possibility and backing it with planned projects. Google it...
Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :
We're still determining where life exists on Earth. Can we really make assumptions about life on Mars?
(If we can be sure this is water, which is might well be.)