Scientists believe intriguing leopard spots on a rock sampled by the Perseverance rover on Mars may have potentially been made by ancient life.
  • rozodru@piefed.socialEnglish
    10·
    10 days ago

    so if i’m understanding this correctly, essentially, chances are Mars never really got the chance to develop life beyond a microscopic level?

    • Kühlschrank@lemmy.world
      4·
      10 days ago

      Seems like it.

      I’m also wondering and maybe there is someone here more knowledgeable than myself: is it not also possible that it spread from Earth to Mars? Maybe it was able to survive for a while but never thrive. I wish we could get DNA from it but I’m sure anything like that is long gone.

      • snooggums@piefed.worldEnglish
        4·
        10 days ago

        Since this came from a tiny section of Mars, odds are high that life covered the planet at one point. Life needs to last long enough to leave traces and it would need to be pretty widespread to leave traces where a remote probe can find evidence in the tiny area that it has explored.

      • brvslvrnst@lemmy.ml
        4·
        10 days ago

        Possibly, though it also could have been the other way around. Another possibility with panspermia is that a comet containing the “right stuff” seeded everywhere.

    • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
      2·
      10 days ago

      I mean, it took billions of years to go beyond that on earth as well. If Mars lost its magnetic field and atmosphere a billion years ago (don’t know the actual timeframe) from everything we know more complex life never had a chance.

      If this doesn’t turn out to be from some previously unknown chemical reaction.