I am posting some thoughts about life on Mars that I sent to a friend who asked me a question about it on Facebook.
I love getting messages like this. The reason that life on Mars could be
so significant is because it might prove that life has evolved
somewhere else independently. If that has happened at least twice in one
solar system the the universe is jam packed with life. It is
everywhere. However there is a problem. It is possible that life could
have spread from Earth to Mars. We have pieces of Mars on Earth and
there are probably pieces of Earth on Mars. It has been shown that some
microorganisms can survive in space so it may be possible that life
spread between the planets. I'm skeptical about this though so imho if
life is found it probably evolved independently. However as a planet
Mars is dead. Life has no grasp on that planet, the chemistry of the
planet is in balance whereas Earth's is way out of balance - a signature
of life, this has been known for a long time and because of this James
Lovelock concluded that we would not find life on Mars. Still there may
have been life in the distant past or life may be holding on at a basic
level. The Saturn moon Enceladus also has the potential for life. It is
believed that there is a huge ocean beneath the very thick ice and
possibly hydrothermal vents which are a contender for being the life
giver on Earth.
If life is found on other planets or moons in our
Solar system - and I think it is a huge "if" - it does not mean the
Universe is full of civilizations. The only civilization to exist on
Earth has only just begun. That means it has taken the life span of the
Universe to produce our civilization even though life as existed on
Earth for a large fraction of that time. So much has happened on Earth
and yet it is only now that civilization has arisen. I think this means
it is extremely difficult to produce a civilization through evolutionary
processes but I'm just guessing really. Also we don't know yet if
global civilizations tend to destroy themselves. If this is a general
tendency, then given the amount of time it likely takes to make a
civilization, it is extremely unlikely that we could find another one.
Still the alternative is that civilizations tend not to destroy
themselves and reach technological levels way beyond our own. Then it
may be that they can spread between planets, reproduce if you will, and
in this case there may be loads. Well some fun ramblings, not sure if
that helped.
