Space!

Moggy wrote:

Squinty wrote:Honestly, I would be surprised if at least one planet in the solar system doesn't have microbial life on it.

My money is on Earth.

I dunno man. Seems a bit far fetched.

rinks wrote:My hope is that Beagle 2 has, over the course of 17 years in isolation, gone full-on Ultron. By tomorrow morning it will have launched an attack on the invader Perseverance.

Meet the real Borg.

Like the Star Trek version but all super British so they don't actually kill you they just stand about awkwardly trying not to bother anyone and sometimes asking if you're ok.

Peter Crisp wrote:

rinks wrote:My hope is that Beagle 2 has, over the course of 17 years in isolation, gone full-on Ultron. By tomorrow morning it will have launched an attack on the invader Perseverance.

Meet the real Borg.

Like the Star Trek version but all super British so they don't actually kill you they just stand about awkwardly trying not to bother anyone and sometimes asking if you're ok.

Space news.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56133281

Perseverance hanging from the sky crane.

Can't wait for the full video!

That cable is all wonky .

Xeno wrote:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56133281

Perseverance hanging from the sky crane.

Amazing

Squinty wrote:Honestly, I would be surprised if at least one planet in the solar system doesn't have microbial life on it.

For sure. But are you including moons within this? Europa feels prime candidate for something potentially more sophisticated, but proving it wont be easy.

On Mars, I suspect we may be fortunate enough to find some evidence that life may have been present in the past, though I suspect absolute proof is unlikely, and certainly anything which is living on the planet right now is likely to be too deep underground for the latest visitors to reach. I can't wait for the day that absolute undeniable proof of life is found though.

Moggy wrote:

Meep wrote:I'm not hugely optimistic about finding even traces of life on Mars. Too much radiation without a magnetosphere. Probably more likely to find something under the Europan ice where it's shielded.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans

Most extremophile organisms aren't always good line to follow with xenobiology imo
Deinococcus is a bacteria genus, which is already a relatively complex lifeform and as such has evolved complex DNA repair mechanisms. The question is can simpler forms of life, or organic assembly, sustain themselves for long enough in these environments to propagate? Indeed, can they even form in these conditions at all? I speak of the RNA level here but perhaps even that isn't a good analogue.

Squinty wrote:Honestly, I would be surprised if at least one planet in the solar system doesn't have microbial life on it.

This is the question right? How common is life really and in what windows of geological time can it survive? I suspect that simple forms of life, like RNA worlds, are probably not too uncommon in the universe, but more complex life is likely rarer. I haven't got my hopes up for finding anything in this solar system though.

SillySprout wrote:

Squinty wrote:Honestly, I would be surprised if at least one planet in the solar system doesn't have microbial life on it.

For sure. But are you including moons within this? Europa feels prime candidate for something potentially more sophisticated, but proving it wont be easy.

On Mars, I suspect we may be fortunate enough to find some evidence that life may have been present in the past, though I suspect absolute proof is unlikely, and certainly anything which is living on the planet right now is likely to be too deep underground for the latest visitors to reach. I can't wait for the day that absolute undeniable proof of life is found though.

Yeah, I should have opened that up to moons as well.

VlaSoul wrote:

Squinty wrote:Honestly, I would be surprised if at least one planet in the solar system doesn't have microbial life on it.

This is the question right? How common is life really and in what windows of geological time can it survive? I suspect that simple forms of life, like RNA worlds, are probably not too uncommon in the universe, but more complex life is likely rarer. I haven't got my hopes up for finding anything in this solar system though.

I suspect this will be right. It would be absolutely incredible if there was complex life in our solar system though.

VlaSoul wrote:[
Most extremophile organisms aren't always good line to follow with xenobiology imo
Deinococcus is a bacteria genus, which is already a relatively complex lifeform and as such has evolved complex DNA repair mechanisms. The question is can simpler forms of life, or organic assembly, sustain themselves for long enough in these environments to propagate? Indeed, can they even form in these conditions at all? I speak of the RNA level here but perhaps even that isn't a good analogue.

In current Mars conditions? Probably not.

In the conditions of Mars millions of years ago, when it has liquid water on the surface? Who knows, but it doesn't seem impossible.

I'm not convinced there is any life still on Mars, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out it used to be there.

I think most of the times life generates it usually fails due some internal instability, environmental factor or it just destroys itself before it ever reaches a more advanced state. For example, in the early days on life on Earth about 98% of all life was wiped out due to oxygen pollution. There are probably x number of planets for every Earth were the fatality was 100% and they are now just toxic wastelands.

That's the great filter. People are wonder when our next filter event will happen. It will probably be climate related, resource wars etc.

Meep wrote:I think most of the times life generates it usually fails due some internal instability, environmental factor or it just destroys itself before it ever reaches a more advanced state. For example, in the early days on life on Earth about 98% of all life was wiped out due to oxygen pollution. There are probably x number of planets for every Earth were the fatality was 100% and they are now just toxic wastelands.

I suspect it's something like this. For everywhere that life is a non starter there's also probably a world where it doesn't evolve recognisable complexity and remains as small aggregations of organic molecules.

The other thing is like, why is it that life on earth managed to proliferate at all? One of the current ideas is that it formed from like lightning striking a stagnant pond full of organic molecules, catalysing a very energetic reaction. A rare event sure, but not so rare that it wouldn't have happened a few times. How did these molecules spread across the earth? Surely there must have been times where such life precusors simply dried up and "died" when their ponds wasted away.

Squinty wrote:That's the great filter. People are wonder when our next filter event will happen. It will probably be climate related, resource wars etc.

Permian mass extinction was probably the closest it last got to something similar, and I doubt humans will be able to replicate something of that scale
That being said people are capable of some big gooseberry fool lmao so we'll see

Just read the most recent thing about Planet Nine. It was kinda fun to think of a large planet or a primordial black hole sitting on the edge of the solar system.

OrangeRKN wrote:Can't wait for the full video!

Wait no more!

That is just incredible

We also have the helicopter launch to look forward to as well .

This thing is going to be amazing to watch.