Science: Life on Mars, ocean found, gases

Unveiling Mars: The Mysterious Ruins and the Quest for Ancient Life (MSN)

• Prepared for soft disclosure?
• In today's unveiling, large amounts of the life-suggestive gases ammonia and phosphine have been found on Mars [Upper limits for phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Mars | Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) (aanda.org)] It's hard to explain their presence in the atmosphere, which increase during the warmer times, without pointing at the forms of life that put out these gases.
• (Life on Venus, too? Phosphine is produced by bacteria in the swamps of Earth and it's also floating around the atmosphere of Venus, reddit.com).

• 

  Full of ocean water just like Earth, huh?

  Enormous hidden ocean discovered under Mars, and it could contain life: Geophysicists have discovered a gigantic hidden ocean beneath Mars' surface, and they say it could harbor life. The massive underground reservoir, discovered using seismic data taken by NASA's InSight Lander, contains enough liquid to cover the entire planet with a mile of water. However, it is far too deep to access by any known means. Trapped inside a layer of fractured rock 7 to 13 miles (11.5 to 20 kms) beneath the Red Planet's outer crust, reaching the water would require a drilling operation that has yet-to-be achieved on Earth. More
• Venus may have phosphine, but Mars has lakes of LIQUID WATER | astrobites
• Over 350 asteroids have hidden moons, Gaia space telescope finds (Live Science)
• 'Severe' G4 geomagnetic storm strikes Earth, making widespread auroras likely
• All life on Earth comes from one single ancestor. and it's so much older than we thought. (MSN)

(Popular Mechanics) In its ancient past, Mars likely contained many of the necessary ingredients for microbial life to flourish on its surface. Now, a new discovery by NASA’s Perseverance rover shows a trifecta of compelling evidence — including the presence of water, organic compounds, and a chemical energy source — all on one rock located in the Jezero Crater.

• David Bowie on Buddhism, ETs, art: Life on Mars
• One would think the word "organic" were life enough, but extraplanetary fossils found decades ago were not enough to overcome doubters in science. If Martian scientists bring us rock samples showing clear signs of earlier life on Mars, we still won't believe them. Life is earth-only. Just ask God (or read His bestseller). We are alone with Lord. Just Lord and us. That's it. No aliens!
• New life forms in earth? The Movile Cave was sealed off for more than 5 million years and the creatures inside of it create sunless FOOD in a completely unique way
• Little green men from Earth: Smallest human species ‘Hobbits’ were even smaller than thought, study finds
• Let's create a new species and call it Homo chimpus: What happens when scientists put a human intelligence gene into a monkey?
• Mysterious Denisovan human species lived undisturbed in the mountains for 160,000 years [and gave us Tibetans]
• Aliens probably exist – but there’s a terrifying reason why we’ve never met them (What if they're smarter than we are?!)

Although this is the best clue yet that microbial life existed on Mars, there are still other explanations that could explain account for this geologic display without the existence of microbes.

“Is there life on Mars” is a question that has vexed astrobiologists and [Buddhist rockstar] David Bowie [who almost became a Vajrayana Buddhist monk rather than a human-alien hybrid pop singer] alike.

Playing with reptilian monsters on earth

While the latter imagined some macabre collection of arachnids on the Red Planet [Spiders on Mars], NASA scientists are fixated on finding evidence that microbial life once flourished on the fourth rock from the Sun.

They are so fixated, in fact, that the space agency has spent more than $5 billion getting two immensely complicated robotic rovers — Curiosity and Perseverance — onto the Martian surface with this specific microbial mission in mind.

Now, one of those rovers might have discovered one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for Martian microbial life.

• Earth has a third form of life — and it could change how we generate power
• ‘Fool's gold' may be valuable after all (msn.com)
• Mountaineers discover mysterious ancient objects in the Alps
• Secret experiments by a 16th-century alchemist involved an element that nobody knew about at the time

Movile Cave, Romania: Life erupts inside cave sealed for 5 million years

Located on an arrowhead-shaped, three-foot-long rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in the Jezero Crater (the 28-mile-wide crater that Perseverance has called home for the past three years), this “piece of evidence” is actually a trifecta of data points that suggest the presence of past microbial life.

The rock in question features two vertical veins of calcium sulfate that likely formed from past water, and these stripes both flank a red band of rock filled with “leopard spots.”

NASA has discovered evidence of past water on Mars before, but it’s this narrow band of rock that brings new meaning to this discovery.

Using its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry) instruments, Perseverance determined the existence of organic compounds within the rock.

What's in Area 51, Groom Lake, Dreamland?

Oh, and those “leopard spots?” Those likely indicate chemical reactions that could’ve supplied energy to ancient microbial Martians.

While each of these discoveries — the presence of water, organic compounds, and chemical reactions — would be notable even if discovered separately, NASA has never seen all three in one location, meaning the geological chemistry of Cheyava Falls is possibly our best clue yet that Mars once hosted life. More:

• NASA made a world-shaking discovery: compelling evidence of past life on Mars
• Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, The Angry Astronaut, 8/5/24; Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly