Are we all martians?

Started by Livewire September 14th, 2013 2:34 PM
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Livewire

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The premise of a recent article I read, on the Panspermia theory, one of the chief theories of Astrobiology.

One of the articles

Article #2

Did life begin on Mars and then travel to Earth for its blossoming?

A long-debated and often-dismissed theory known as "panspermia" got new life in the past week, as two scientists separately proposed that early Earth lacked some chemicals essential to forming life, while early Mars likely had them.

First came Steven Benner, an iconoclastic and highly regarded origins-of-life chemist with the Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology in Gainesville, Florida.

Last week, during a keynote talk at the Goldschmidt conference for geochemists in Florence, Italy, Benner said that two elements that allow the precursors of life to form were almost certainly unavailable on early Earth but were likely present on early Mars.

"Basically, we went looking on Mars because the origins-of-life options on Earth just aren't looking very good," Benner said.

One of the stumbling blocks to life starting on Earth is the fact that water is almost universally accepted as necessary for the onset of life. Yet RNA—which many consider to be the earliest expression of genetic replication and another essential precursor to life as we know it—falls apart if you try to build it in water.

What keeps that from happening, Benner has found over years of study, is the presence of a form of the element boron. While geologists say boron was too scarce on early Earth to support any widespread creation of RNA, it was seemingly more abundant on early Mars. One sign of its presence on the red planet is that at least one meteorite has delivered some Martian boron to Earth.

Benner has also found in his lab that if a form of the element molybdenum is added to the mix, the boron-steadied compounds are rearranged to form a stable version of ribose—the "R" in RNA.

Again, the element was far more available on early Mars than early Earth. (See "Naked Science: Finding the Origin of Life.")

So the question arises: Did RNA on Mars lead to actual DNA-based life? And did those lifeforms then travel to Earth on rocks kicked up when a meteorite struck Mars?

"The Phosphate Problem"

A few days after Benner's talk on August 29, a paper appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience that made a similar argument about phosphorus compounds, which form the backbone of RNA, DNA, and proteins.

While phosphates were present on early Earth, said lead author Christopher Adcock of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, they were most frequently found in a solid state, in which they are most stable. Yet biology is understood to have started in water, which would have contained little of the phosphates on early Earth.

"This has long been called 'the phosphate problem,'" Adcock said in an interview. "There are theories out there about how it might have worked [on early Earth], but there's no consensus.

"That played a part in getting us interested in Mars," he said.

On Mars, Adcock's team concluded, the phosphate problem appears to be much smaller. Adcock and his colleague Elizabeth Hausrath synthesized the two types of phosphates known to be on both early and current-day Mars, compounds that have also been delivered to Earth via meteorites.

Those Martian phosphates turned out to be far more soluble in water and also more abundant. So when it came to essential phosphates, at least, Mars appears to have been a better nursery for life.

Answering the Big Cosmic Question

The reemergence of the theory of panspermia is intertwined with progress (or lack of progress) in a long-term scientific quest to find out how life began on Earth, a question that synthetic biology experts such as Benner have been working on for decades. Despite some advances, the field has come up against chemical walls that are proving impossible to climb.

For instance, Benner said, the organic—meaning carbon-based—compounds understood to have come together to form life in a "prebiotic soup" do not behave in the lab in a way that would indicate they led to the formation of life on early Earth.

When these compounds are energized by heat or light, instead of producing early RNA they create tar—hardly the stuff from which we would all evolve. Yet discoveries over the past decade on Mars have pointed to a planet that was once warmer and wetter than it is now.

No living or fossil organisms have been found on Mars. But the science team working with the rover Curiosity concluded earlier this year that they had drilled into an ancient lake bed that had all that was needed to support life—and consequently that the planet had been habitable. (See "NASA's Mars Rover Makes Successful First Drill.")

That doesn't mean it ever was inhabited, but scientific signs are beginning to point, however hesitantly, in that direction.

Does this mean Benner or Adcock sees panspermia as a likely beginning for life on Earth? Not exactly.

Benner says that "it's yet another piece of evidence which makes it more likely life came to Earth on a Martian meteorite." But it's more of a changing of probabilities than it is scientific proof.

"A panspermia solution, after all, produces another panspermia problem," he said. "If a Martian microbe did make it from Mars to Earth, maybe it would be as if it landed in Eden. But just as likely, it would quickly die."


Is it possible that the ingredients necessary for life - proteins, amino acids, etc, could have literally fallen to earth in a meteorite, from Mars, which possessed the chemical ingredients necessary? If the theory could be validated, what kind of social and cultural implications would it have? Does this vindicate the search for extraterrestrial life?

*Note: To differentiate between the Extraterrestrial Intelligences thread and this one, keep the discussion here about the origin of life on this planet, and the merits of the theory. Talk about aliens over there.

Squirrel

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I don't have much to say about this other than "wow that's cool", haha. It's an astounding theory and if it's true the implications could be huge... It sounds unlikely at this earlyish stage but who's to say what else we'll find out. I find the concept of enough materials from Mars reaching the Earth in tact to sustain the beginning of life to be kind of impossible, but I guess it's not any less likely than two minuscule particles colliding from nothing and causing an explosion of such proportions...

Honest

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i feel like deoxys rn

This is actually pretty astounding. I'm not a man of science, but if more research and proof goes into this, it'll be interesting to see where it pays off too. And man, if it turns out to be true, this will change the world as we know it. Literally!
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I'm more leaning towards extrasolar origins myself. Because in reality if it originated on mars something substantial would have to have happened for all the stuffs to be transported to earth, I haven't read the thing I'm just going to assume they haven't found anything concrete on HOW it got here.

It makes sense if it can survive on Mars for so long that it could have survived on a larger celestial body that ended up making up chunks of our solar system.

Expanding on that, what happened to the rest of that extrasolar object? Did it all end up in our solar system? Unlikely, the same fundamental pieces will without a doubt have also spread off into the distance and makes the hunt for extra terrestrial life all the more exciting. Imagine it had ended up in the solar system of one of those super Earths that we've found. Oooh there could be more people like us out there. This is exciting.

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It doesn't really matter what we think, because currently all the funds for space traveling seem to be cut off in every country right now. However, the theory seems pretty amazing and would be awesome if it were true. But, I think the cultural and social impact would be very slim. It would add to discussion and maybe be a big topic in the news. But it won't change the way we are today or anything.
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Livewire

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I think the fact that some of the necessary building blocks survived a meteor crash from space, speaks volumes about the nature of life. It is indeed resilient, almost parasitic. Now while I think one example shouldn't be taken as complete proof of the theories validity, it does demonstrate that this is possible. And that's I think all we need - is the possibility.

I also think it's incredible that complex life on this planet, everything, could have happened by complete chance, and such a slim chance at that. That should make people value things a little more, and open a few eyes.
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I think the fact that some of the necessary building blocks survived a meteor crash from space, speaks volumes about the nature of life. It is indeed resilient, almost parasitic. Now while I think one example shouldn't be taken as complete proof of the theories validity, it does demonstrate that this is possible. And that's I think all we need - is the possibility.

I also think it's incredible that complex life on this planet, everything, could have happened by complete chance, and such a slim chance at that. That should make people value things a little more, and open a few eyes.
It sure is...just look up articles talking about the discover of ancient forms of bacteria trapped under Antarctic ice which...are still alive! Life sure is amazing...it's almost like a manifestation of the will to live...
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I think the fact that some of the necessary building blocks survived a meteor crash from space, speaks volumes about the nature of life. It is indeed resilient, almost parasitic. Now while I think one example shouldn't be taken as complete proof of the theories validity, it does demonstrate that this is possible. And that's I think all we need - is the possibility.

I also think it's incredible that complex life on this planet, everything, could have happened by complete chance, and such a slim chance at that. That should make people value things a little more, and open a few eyes.
That part on the nature of life reminds me of this quote from Jurassic Park.
"Life will find a way." It's mindblowing when you think of it. Their discoveries did open lots of possibilities.
What I like about science is that it is a continuous process, it never ends and everything continue to add up. I hope they discover a lot more from the exploration in Mars. That would give light to a lot of things :)
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