Mars may have hosted life earlier than Earth did, study says

[Makuser]

A new study suggests that life may have existed on Mars hundreds of millions of years prior to its emergence on Earth. The Red Planet may have been ripe for life as early as 4.48 billion years ago, after "life-inhibiting meteorites stopped striking the planet," according to the study. And it's possible that life could've thrived between 4.2 billion and 3.5 billion years ago, according to comments made by the study's lead author, Desmond Moser. You can read more about this interesting study here, at:
https://www.foxnews.com/science/mars-life-earlier-earth

[AntennaGuy]

Yes, but... it was only 5 million years ago according to the documentary (cough) movie, "Five Million Years to Earth," aka "Quatermass and the Pit."
The Martians (which roughly resembled large grasshoppers) visited Earth and left their crashed/buried spaceship in an area that would later on become London, England, only to be exposed during the digging of a new subway tunnel. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermas ... Pit_(film)
(It was a pretty good SF movie, for its time period.)

[notFritzArgelander]

Another possible take....

https://www.space.com/did-earth-life-st ... simal.html

[Max Nomad]

Another possible take....

https://www.space.com/did-earth-life-st ... simal.html

Whether life first started here or on Mars almost becomes irrelevant. Based on all the evidence (scientific, physical, and prima facie) it makes sense that there was probably life on Mars until some extinction event occurred. Leave a piece of fruit sitting on a table and it will eventually start growing life -- fungus, bacteria, flies, etc -- until an extinction event occurs when someone grows tired of the smell and disposes of it.

I often long for the day when science finally proves that the universe is full of life... and not to sound like a whack-job but if evolution of life here on Earth is any indicator I suspect we'll find that the cosmos is full of jellyfish and trilobites.

[Bikerdib]

We as humans (at least some with no imagination) seem to think all of history is the life of our own planet and forget that there were millions of star systems that formed, went through their life cycle and then died long before our own solar system formed. Likewise for Earth and Mars, maybe we are actually transplanted Martians, maybe we evolved from life ingredients brought here by asteroids. We may NEVER know for sure.

[notFritzArgelander]

There is a scientific point about the possibility of life arising first on Mars then seeding life on Earth. If that would be the case then it would not count twice in the statistical estimates for the incidence of life. It would only count as one independent instance for life's incidence.

The Drake equation estimate is defective. We need to get over it.

[helicon]

There is no evidence that there is life in the universe outside earth. But as they say, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

[notFritzArgelander]

There is no evidence that there is life in the universe outside earth. But as they say, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Quite right. Absence of evidence just puts a ceiling on the likelihood of occurrences. Eventually as the ceiling lowers one gives up looking. There’s no ongoing search for rainbow farting unicorns AFAIK.

[bladekeeper]

There’s no ongoing search for rainbow farting unicorns AFAIK.

Damn. Guess I can scratch that one off my bucket list. :sigh: