Water on Mars!

[Ungtar]

Quite possibly the most important discovery in human history.

[Mele]

I dunno, man.

The dude who discovered potatoes are edible is my spirit animal.

[Ungtar]

I dunno, man.

The dude who discovered potatoes are edible is my spirit animal.

This book is a favorite in my collection.

It was written back in a time when people who read books had the time to really read books. It not only tells you which ship first brought the potato back to Europe from the Americas, but what the captain's name was, his work history, and where he's buried.

Then it goes on to tell you how the potato is ultimately responsible for western civilization and democracy as we know it.

http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/su ... nd-edition

[Woror]

42.

[Larethiel]

[Terageld]

What exactly is the significance of water on Mars? Are nations planning colonies there or something?

[Danik]

What exactly is the significance of water on Mars? Are nations planning colonies there or something?

There are plans for colonies on Mars, and a source of water there would make this much easier. The soil there contains elements that are toxic to humans, so any sort of farming would have to be done using hydroponics. Having a source of water available on Mars would make this much easier than hauling thousands of pounds of water up there.

Along with this finding water is exciting because anytime we find water on earth we find life. Being able to study this water may reveal new forms of life to us, or point us to an ancestor. There are a lot of potential discoveries to be made by studying this water.

[Terageld]

Oh, that's amazing. Think those colonies will happen within our lifetimes?

[Parsley]

Also, we must remember that even if Mars has water, because the air pressure of Mars, out on the surface without a space suit pretty much our bodily fluids would **boil**, while having water on Mars could ease having a scientific outpost there, we must look elsewhere to live.

Having water could mean that life on Mars as we know it on the Earth could be more possible, even if microscopical, but I think that if we are going to find more complex lifeforms in the solar system, perhaps Enceladus has a better chance.

[Althasizor]

http://www.mars-one.com/

Just imagine the sports they could invent on Mars.

[Ungtar]

Also, we must remember that even if Mars has water, because the air pressure of Mars, out on the surface without a space suit pretty much our bodily fluids would **boil**, while having water on Mars could ease having a scientific outpost there, we must look elsewhere to live.

Having water could mean that life on Mars as we know it on the Earth could be more possible, even if microscopical, but I think that if we are going to find more complex lifeforms in the solar system, perhaps Enceladus has a better chance.

Eventually they're going to bring back a water sample. And at that point, if they find any sort of microscopic life in it (that isn't contamination) then it changes everything. Culture, science, theology ... everything.

It would mean that life in outer space is so common that it happened TWICE in the same solar system.

[Parsley]

Given the large quantity(infinite?) of planetary systems. It is bound to exist life in more than one, the problem is discovering another planetary system in which there is life while still exists life in ours (that is ourselves).

As human race we have existed for around 200000 years and as civilization about 6000 years, to put things in perspective the universe approximately has 21 million years, until this very moment alien lifeforms might have evolved and extinguished and we would not even noticed, perhaps in the years 1000BC to 1000AD we were receiving signals from a civilization that now has gone dark for whatever reason, it is only that until relatively little time ago we had the means to study the universe...

In any case I like to think that in the next 40 years we will find evidence of life on any other planets and that life in the universe it is not uncommon after all, we just need to learn how to look and where to look better.

It is a really fascinating topic, thank you Ungtar.

[Larethiel]

As human race we have existed for around 200000 years

I just....have to reply to that quote. Sorry!

Some indicators suggest a beginning of a period called Middle Stone Age in Africa at around 500.000 to 550.000 years before today with the Early Stone Age seeing the first use of things we can call tools even before that. MSA is associated with both anatomically modern Homo sapiens and the archaic Homo sapiens, in Europe also with Homo neanderthalensis. Looking down the line of ancestors, humanity has existed considerably longer, many millions if those ancestors not of the genus Homo are taken into count. Looking down the line, Homo existed way longer than 200000 years and from recent revelations in southern Africa, we might see something amazing with Homo naledi at an age of 2,5-2,8 millions of years ago, placing it quite close to the beginning of the the genus Homo. Having been presented with the news of Homo naledi and mouthwateringly highly definition images on a conference in July last year, this could be something very exciting

[Gwain]

Don't forget what came before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URcmLnVTvMU