Life on Mars?

Do you believe there was past life on Mars? Here’s what new NASA evidence indicates.

Dry, cold and barren. Mars doesn’t seem like a haven for life—at least not the kind humans are familiar with.

Scientists have wondered for decades if microbial life could have inhabited Mars in the distant past. One study, based on data collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover, is peeling back a layer of the mystery. Researchers measured the isotopic composition of carbon-rich minerals found in Gale Crater. This region is laced with dried rivers and gullies and was explored by the rover.

The findings Curiosity sent to Earth were not optimistic about the potential for life above ground. But that doesn’t rule out the possibility of an underground biosphere or even a surface biosphere that began and ended before the carbonates were formed.

This suggests two possible ways carbon-rich minerals could have form at Gale crater: a series of alternating wet and dry periods or salty-ice conditions. These two climate scenarios could be called ‘bleak’ and ‘bleaker’ when it comes to supporting life.

In an environment that swings from wet to dry, the region would shift from more habitable to less habitable. In the frigid temperatures near Mars’ equator, that environment would be hostile for life because most water would be frozen and inaccessible for chemistry or biology. Plus, what water was there was extremely salty, not pleasant for life.

This isn’t the first time scientists have theorized these climate scenarios for ancient Mars. Previous computer models have indicated these conditions before, but now they have isotopic evidence from Martian rocks.

Scientists have sought life on Mars since the first spacecraft touched down there in 1976. Mounting evidence from robotic explorers has shown the Red Planet to have been warmer and wetter, perhaps more than 3 billion years ago.

The Perseverance rover discovered a spotted rock with compelling signs of ancient dead Martian life, but a sample would need to be shipped to Earth for confirmation. A research team also reported evidence of a vast ocean of water below the planet’s surface. On Earth, where there’s water, there’s often life.

Scientists are interested in Mars’ carbon-rich rocks because they can hold clues about the environment in which they formed, such as the temperature and acidity of the water, and ingredients in the water and air.

The sampled rocks indicate lots of evaporation, suggesting a climate that could only support transient liquid water—that is, ice that melts when temperatures rise and the surface pressure is right.

The heavy isotope values in the rocks are much higher than what’s seen on Earth. They are the heaviest carbon and oxygen isotope values recorded for any Martian materials. Although evaporation can cause oxygen isotope changes on Earth, the changes in the Martian samples were two to three times greater.

But this doesn’t negate the possibility of life. Mars has a network of deep caves formed by ancient volcanic vents. Within the caves could be liquid water, traces of long-deceased bacteria or fungi, or perhaps even existing microbial life.

Caves can host complex ecosystems, including extremophiles that munch on rocks and convert the material into energy for life. So, many astrobiologists want to go spelunking on Mars. Would you like to join them?

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/past-life-on-mars-here-s-what-new-nasa-evidence-points-to/ar-AA1rWIgJ?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=5432d20e554e4f3ea664d26edcf277ee&ei=74

Lost Temple of Poseidon

After 2,600 years, the lost Temple of Poseidon has been found, and it is even bigger than expected.

It seemed obvious that there would be a temple dedicated to Poseidon, the ancient Greek god of water. But the temple was lost for a long time and re-discovered recently. The ruins were found in Elis, Greece, and identified as the Temple of Poseidon of Samikon, which was described by the ancient Greek geographer Strabo. Archeologists now say the temple is even larger than they thought.

Scientists had searched for the lost temple for over a century in the area’s marshlands and found it in 2022. It sits in Samikon in the Peloponnese peninsula. It is hoped the discovery would shed light on the political and economic importance of the 6th century BC amphictyony, which is an association of neighboring states to defend a common religious center. The temple formed the center of the town’s cultural and religious identity.

Excavations in 2023 revealed more parts of the temple, indicating the size of the temple was larger than initial investigations had predicted. The building now measures around 28 meters long and over 9 meters wide. It has two interior rooms, a vestibule and a rear hall or shrine. The function of the two rooms is unclear. Some suggest it could be a double temple, where two deities were worshipped. Or one room could be a meeting room to discuss important matters.

This Archaic temple consists of two main rooms. A central row of two columns was found in the first hall supported a large roof covered with tiles. There may have also been similar columns in the second room. The ground plan of the temple is unusual, and archeologists know of no comparable buildings so far.

Research shows there were two construction phases. In the second half of the 4^th or first half of the 3^rd century BC, the original temple was remodeled. As part of the process, the old roof tiles were applied as a subfloor for the new floor, where they served as insulation against groundwater and to stabilize the floor. Where tiles are missing, the ground is damp and muddy. These dates correspond to pottery found at the site, such as drinking cups and roof tiles.

The excavations are part of a five-year project. Strabo, an ancient Greek geographer, had suggested the temple would be near the coast, in a grove of wild olive trees, with lagoons, coastal marches and swamps. Because of his writings, and technological advancements, researchers found the temple 2,600 years after it was built.

The team wants to find out more about the sanctuary and its dimensions. Are other temple buildings, altars, houses, a processional route or treasuries still hidden under the earth?

How Life on Earth Could Have Started

Scientists redid an experiment and found a new possibility of how life on Earth could have started.

In the 1931 movie “Frankenstein,” Dr Henry Frankenstein howled his triumph as massive bolts of lightning crackled and Frankenstein’s monster stirred on a laboratory table, its pieced-together corpse brought to life by the power of electricity.

Electrical energy may have also sparked the beginnings of life on Earth billions of years ago. Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, and the oldest direct fossil evidence of ancient life is stromatolites, microscopic organism preserved in layers known as microbial mats. These are about 3.5 billion years old. However, some scientists suspect life originated even earlier, emerging from accumulated organic molecules in bodies of water, a mixture sometimes referred to as primordial soup.

But where did that organic material come from? Decades ago, researchers proposed that lightning caused chemical reactions in the oceans, and spontaneously produced organic molecules.

New research suggests that fizzes of barely visible “microlightning,” generated between charged droplets of water mist, could have cooked up amino acids from inorganic materials. Amino acids are life’s most basic building blocks and would have been the first step forward in the evolution of life.

For amino acids to form, they needed nitrogen atoms that could bond with carbon. Freeing up atoms from nitrogen gas requires severing powerful molecular bonds and takes an enormous amount of energy. Even microlightning has enough energy to break molecular bonds.

In 1953, chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey combined ammonia, methane, hydrogen and water inside a glass sphere to mimic the atmosphere of ancient Earth. They then jolted that atmosphere with electricity, producing simple amino acids. This experiment supported the theory that life could emerge from nonliving molecules.

Scientists revisited the 1953 experiment but directed their attention toward electrical activity on a smaller scale. They looked at electricity exchanged between water droplets measuring between 1 micron and 20 microns in diameter. (The width of a human hair is 100 microns.) The big droplets were positively charged. The little droplets were negatively charged. When oppositely charged droplets are close together, electrons can jump from the negative charge to the positively charged.

The researchers mixed ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen in a glass bulb, then sprayed the gases with water mist. A high-speed camera captured faint flashes of microlightning in the vapor. When they examined the bulb’s contents, they found organic molecules, including the amino acid glycine and uracil, a nucleotide base in RNA.

For the first time, scientists have seen that little droplets of water emit light and a spark. And that spark causes all types of chemical transformations.

Lightning is a dramatic display of electrical power, but it sporadic and unpredictable. Lightning may have been too infrequent to produce amino acids in quantities sufficient for life. Water spray, however, would have been more common than lightning. It is more likely that mist-generated microlightning constantly zapped amino acids into existence from pools and puddles, where the molecules could accumulate and form more complex molecules.

However, questions remain about life’s origins. An alternative abiogenesis hypothesis proposes that Earth’s first amino acids were cooked up around hydrothermal vents on the seafloor. Yet another hypothesis suggests that organic molecules didn’t originate on Earth at all. Rather, they formed in space and were carried here by comets or fragments of asteroids, a process known as panspermia.

What do you think is a likely explanation?

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-redid-an-experiment-that-showed-how-life-on-earth-could-have-started-they-found-a-new-possibility/ar-AA1BPYjK?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=55f7946bb40046bca0f5c028e2b5ca06&ei=38

Viking Skeletons

Viking skeletons over 1,000 years old buried with a crystal and other treasures.

Archaeologists found Viking skeletons over 1,000 years old buried with a crystal and other treasures.

Near the village of Asum in Denmark, people had no idea they were standing on the well-preserved graves of 50 Viking-era skeletons. Archaeologists happened upon the graves during a routine survey in preparation for a construction project.

Normally, they would be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, but here they had entire skeletons. They dated the burial site to the 9^th or 10th centuries, more than 1,000 years ago.

In addition to the skeletons, they uncovered rare trinkets and treasures buried with the bodies. For example, sone of the jewelry did not originate in Denmark. As the scientists suspected, the graves told them story of people connected to international trade routes.

These routes provided avenues to exchanging goods, allowing the wealthy to acquire rare and prized items from distant lands. They also helped establish nearby Odense, the third largest city in Denmark.

Some days I regret that I never had the chance to dig in the dirt and happen across such grisly remains.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/archaeologists-found-viking-skeletons-over-1-000-years-old-buried-with-a-crystal-and-other-treasures-they-re-improving-our-understanding-of-how-wealthy-vikings-once-lived/ss-AA1snO4V?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=ed46623d933043f19069e3bf9a8f9350&ei=38