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Martian Mushrooms


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2021 May 9, 3:17pm   707 views  12 comments

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“It is possible that all the specimens presented here are abiotic. We cannot completely rule out minerals, weathering, and unknown geological forces that are unique to Mars and unknown and alien to Earth. However, growth, movement, alterations in location and shape, constitute behavior, and coupled with life-like morphology, strongly support the hypothesis there is life on Mars.”
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/amp36356445/mushrooms-on-mars-nasa-photos-life-on-mars/

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1   Patrick   2021 May 9, 3:36pm  



I can believe it. Mars is not so completely inhospitable to primitive life.
2   HeadSet   2021 May 9, 7:35pm  

One of these balls popped up overnight at the foot of the first Mars rover years back. It disappeared just as quickly. Many people speculated that it was a fungus of some sort, but NASA explained it as something not biological.
3   rocketjoe79   2021 May 9, 7:43pm  

Could be frozen CO2. evaporates in the day, returns at night.
4   AmericanKulak   2021 May 9, 8:35pm  

There was a very simple test on the Viking Lander that showed evidence of life.

https://phys.org/news/2016-10-year-old-viking-life-mars.html
5   Onvacation   2021 May 9, 8:52pm  

Try to STOP mold and fungus from growing.

Maybe the rover accidently brought it there.
6   just_passing_through   2021 May 9, 8:58pm  

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says
There was a very simple test on the Viking Lander that showed evidence of life.

https://phys.org/news/2016-10-year-old-viking-life-mars.html


Yep, that was a good one. I recall seeing some documentary where the people running the experiment cited some political issues getting it repeated. I wish I could recall but I think it was some sort of bureaucratic bs combined with peeps pissed off about tax dollars going into space exploration. Bureaucrats wanted the space gravy train to continue and that wasn't the way to do it.
7   Ceffer   2021 May 10, 12:18am  

Billions and billions to discover alien athlete's foot.
8   richwicks   2021 May 10, 4:52am  

HeadSet says
One of these balls popped up overnight at the foot of the first Mars rover years back. It disappeared just as quickly. Many people speculated that it was a fungus of some sort, but NASA explained it as something not biological.


I feel it's unlikely these are some sort of life form. What life form, after all, suddenly generates over 2 days to become visible, then disappear 2 days later? The soil would have to have a bunch of nutrients. What are their energy source? They appear to be white, so it's not photosynthesis. If it's a fungus (or acts similar to a fungus) it's consuming dead matter in the soil itself - but what is the source of THAT dead matter?

I wouldn't be surprised if Mars DOES have bacterial life, but the idea that fungus spores are springing up every where is kind of hard to swallow - unless the entire surface of mars is covered in a bacterial sheet - and maybe it is - but if it is, it's been a complete screw-up to take 40 years to detect this. A microscope could have been sent any time in the last 30 20 years just to inspect the soil at high resolution and magnification.

I think this is just more media BS hype. I don't see NASA making these hyped up claims, just "news" media reports about this.

Popular Mechanics was never a very good magazine, even 40 years ago, I think maybe, it's just complete garbage now. I quit reading it back when the Internet became widely available.
9   Bd6r   2021 May 10, 10:25am  

richwicks says
I wouldn't be surprised if Mars DOES have bacterial life, but the idea that fungus spores are springing up every where is kind of hard to swallow - unless the entire surface of mars is covered in a bacterial sheet - and maybe it is - but if it is, it's been a complete screw-up to take 40 years to detect this.

"Advanced" apes can't detect most of bacteria here on Earth, so should be even more difficult on Mars. I often talk to researchers who isolate new bacterial strains, and they tell me that if it can't be cultivated, they can't discover it.

Humans have described between 10000 and 20000 species of bacteria, while the estimated total number of bacteria species is 10^19...
10   Patrick   2021 May 10, 9:01pm  

Given the rate at which bacteria reproduce (hours) I'm sure there will always be new species faster than we can name them.

Maybe the stuff on Mars can extract some kind of chemical energy.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065216417300576

recent work acknowledges eukaryotes, and in particular fungi, as common inhabitants of the deep biosphere, including the deep igneous provinces. The fossil record of the subseafloor igneous crust, and to some extent the continental bedrock, establishes fungi or fungus-like organisms as inhabitants of deep rock since at least the Paleoproterozoic
11   just_passing_through   2021 May 10, 9:04pm  

Rb6d says
"Advanced" apes can't detect most of bacteria here on Earth, so should be even more difficult on Mars. I often talk to researchers who isolate new bacterial strains, and they tell me that if it can't be cultivated, they can't discover it.

Humans have described between 10000 and 20000 species of bacteria, while the estimated total number of bacteria species is 10^19...


Well, the past decade or so we can. We can sequence genomes of things we can't see or culture. Metagenomics. It's a bit of a mind-stretch but nothing compared to some of the stuff you chemists or physicists do.

Bot if we can't capture the genome, then no.
12   just_passing_through   2021 May 10, 9:07pm  

Patrick says
I can believe it. Mars is not so completely inhospitable to primitive life.


Maybe not but it's sure as hell inhospitable to us: It's a perchlorate superfund site.

For example:

https://archive.epa.gov/region9/toxic/web/html/per_ca.html#:~:text=Perchlorate%20has%20been%20detected%20in%20at%20least%2023%20water%20supply,primary%20source%20of%20the%20contamination.

And:

https://www.space.com/21554-mars-toxic-perchlorate-chemicals.html

That's my thinking as to why: This will not end well

More so than the cosmic radiation and lack of gravity affects for such a long duration.

Maybe those are perchlorate eating mushrooms.

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