Earth Life Likely Came from Mars, Study Suggests


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Earth Life Likely Came from Mars, Study Suggests

We may all be Martians.

 

Evidence is building that Earth life originated on Mars and was brought to this planet aboard a meteorite, said biochemist Steven Benner of The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in Florida.

An oxidized form of the element molybdenum, which may have been crucial to the origin of life, was likely available on the Red Planet's surface long ago, but unavailable on Earth, said Benner, who presented his findings today (Aug. 28; Aug. 29 local time) at the annual Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Florence, Italy.

 

"It?s only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidized that it is able to influence how early life formed," Benner said in a statement. "This form of molybdenum couldn?t have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because 3 billion years ago, the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did. It?s yet another piece of evidence which makes it more likely life came to Earth on a Martian meteorite, rather than starting on this planet."

Organic compounds are the building blocks of life, but they need a little help to make things happen. Simply adding energy such as heat or light turns a soup of organic molecules into a tarlike substance, Benner said.

That's where oxidized molybdenum comes in. Inserting it or boron, another element, into the mix would help organics make the leap to life, Benner added.

"Analysis of a Martian meteorite recently showed that there was boron on Mars; we now believe that the oxidized form of molybdenum was there, too," he said.

Another point in Mars' favor is the likelihood that the early Earth was completely covered by water while the ancient Red Planet had substantial dry areas, Benner said. All of this liquid would have made it difficult for boron, which is currently found only in extremely dry places, to form in high enough concentrations on Earth when life was first evolving.

Further, Benner added, water is corrosive to RNA, which most researchers think was the first genetic molecule (rather than DNA, which came later).

 

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Nooooooooo!!!!! We were created by god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You finally got something right! No kidding. No im not joking! And it's a big (G) God...

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Maybe he doesn't capitalize the names of his imaginary friends?

 

Unbelievable that with the wealth of information available to us today, that people still believe in the old man in the sky!

 

But back on topic, that's awesome, in the end we might be the little green men from mars ourselves  :D

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The giant beings known as Nephilim (aka the Mala'kak, the Ossians, the gigantes, the engineers, the space jokeys) created us on their lab on LV-223.

 

j/k

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The giant beings known as Nephilim (aka the Mala'kak, the Ossians, the gigantes, the engineers, the space jokeys) created us on their lab on LV-223.

 

j/k

I got the references, but wasn't it LV-426??

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I got the references, but wasn't it LV-426??

 

Yes, in the Alien/Aliens it was LV-426, the crash site.

 

But in the movie Prometheus, the name of the planet was LV-223. ;)

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Yes, in the Alien/Aliens it was LV-426, the crash site.

 

But in the movie Prometheus, the name of the planet was LV-223. ;)

 

Well it wasn't the same planet, or universe so...

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I read a lot of "likely"s and "probably"s in that article. There is a lot of conjecture and not a lot of hard evidence.

 

The article also uses a hypothetical, martian meteorite as the delivery system. Where did this meteorite come from? Mars is still there, and I don't see any giant chunks of it missing. So where did this meteorite come from?

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I read a lot of "likely"s and "probably"s in that article. There is a lot of conjecture and not a lot of hard evidence.

 

The article also uses a hypothetical, martian meteorite as the delivery system. Where did this meteorite come from? Mars is still there, and I don't see any giant chunks of it missing. So where did this meteorite come from?

Hypotheses are part of the scientific method.  Now they need to continue studying it to prove or debunk it.

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Hypotheses are part of the scientific method.  Now they need to continue studying it to prove or debunk it.

Yes, they are. But by definition they are unproven guesses. So why publish them? And the article specifically refers to it as "evidence" even though none of it qualifies. So it's a little misleading.

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