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Wednesday, 2 August 2006

Dry and Dusty Death

NASA has been taking a look at Mars and has concluded that it may not just be lifeless, but is actively hostile to it.

I'm one of the life on Mars sceptics and have been since the first Viking missions when my alarm bell went off after the life-detecting experiments produced loads of gases, but could find no organic chemicals-- and the samples continued to do so even after being sterilised. What I'm surprised about is why we're still scratching out heads over this one. We're so used to living on a world with abundant water (even our deserts are rain forests compared to Mars) that we often forget just how close to being a universal solvent it is and how it has totally altered the environment of Earth. Take away water, and you have a chemical environment that isn't just dry, it also produces all sorts of nasty compounds that rip organic molecules to pieces. This makes near-airless, UV blasted Mars a very different place than once imagined.

Pity. As a boy I was rather looking forward to seeing a Thoat.
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