Some flowers will have grown out of the soil, or something. ;P
Scientificly, it would be huuuuge. That you jest about it without knowing the extreme weight of it all shows you are ignorant of what it would really mean.
---------- Post added 2012-11-22 at 02:26 PM ----------
A...shrubbery!!!
---------- Post added 2012-11-22 at 02:27 PM ----------
Not sure why you're in this thread proclaiming that you don't care. Several times.
Please stop pooping on the party.
1) If you are a random guy, it doesn't. If you are a scientist, it may.
Different chemical base perhaps? Non-carbon-based life? Or non-oxygen-based? Possibilities are infinite.
2/3) It's not only about oxygen - ultraviolet radiation, space rays, elements brought to surface by meteorites, great daily temperature swings, seasonal pressure swings. While we can emulate all of those conditions in labs/space stations, seeing their effect on long-time life in natural conditions is quite different.
4/5) Someone once compared the chance of life forming from the organics to a hurricane over a scrapyard accidentally creating a fully-operational Boeing. We don't even know how the life first appeared. We may very well be alone in at least a million nearby galaxies, if not alone in the universe.
"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon
FC: 3437-3046-3552
I've only just started a three-year course in biotechnology, with no previous knowledge in the subject, just extreme interest in this field. My thought on the matter is that they have maybe microbial life. But if you ask me, I think microbial life will be very common in the universe, it's complex life that will be more difficult to find, if you consider that there's a kind of bacteria and even complex life that lives in extremely hostile conditions here on earth in the present and mostly in the past. I think it's not far stretch to assume there will be life on any planet with a slight atmosphere, mars and venus seem to be the closest candidates.
I suspect it's a PR stunt, like the one a while back when they found some bacteria are able to live in very acidic conditions here on earth. Technically that's also one for the history books but it was a bit of a letdown considering the way they announced it.
first one: not carbon based life?...i don't think so
2/3 alright, there are alot of different possibilities...i'll give you that.
4/5 that guy probably also believed in a earth that was 6000 years old and speaking snakes and stuff...
and @ creamyflames. good job on giving me one example...this shows exactly how much you know about this topic...about as much as me.
i am aware of it being a bada boom for astrbiologists etc...but you as a person wouldn't notice jackshit.
nothing would change here on earth, except of maybe a little increased funds for space related science for 5 years, then we'd be back to normal.
lay down your pink sunglasses.
I'll wait for the results rather than speculate, the reason they triple check everything is because quite often first impressions can be false.
Also
No it doesn't. Nothing changes really. Life on Earth is at least 3 billion years old. We find meteorites from Mars and other bodies in the solar system all the time. So all discovering microscopic life on Mars would mean is that it got there from Earth by a meteorite.
But I bet it's probably more along the lines of "oh my gosh, we discovered a rare clay that forms only above this and that latitude at a much lower latitude" or something boring like that..
I don't know what would be HUGE about that? I thought they already said there was signs of water on mars?
---------- Post added 2012-11-22 at 08:48 AM ----------
This was one of the funniest comments on MMO-C in a while. Thank you for that.
Could be so many things, there's really no point in guessing.
That guy was a scientist. Can't find the quote atm, though.
Just imagine, the chance that all the required elements and substances get together at the same moment, and some unknown catalyst is also there and causes it all to "come alive" and it also somehow develops a complicated structure, feeding instincts and ability to split into progeny. Kinda... improbable?
i'd love it to be like a martian sand worm or some kind of prehistoric fossil that suggests life evolved on mars at the same time as on earth, but then the atmosphere destabilised or something and everything died - like what wiped out the dinosaurs, but had a more drastic effect on the planet than it did on earth
but it's probably just gonna be news of water + fertile soil or something allowing for manned missions to mars.
<insert witty signature here>
Prothean ruins!
Prothean artifact of course, what else?
EDIT: Damn it, beaten at the last second!