|
|
|
Some of the coverage of the Mars Lander frustrates me a little. I’m a space exploration junky and I love all the high tech hardware zooming around our solar system. However, the emphasis on finding life on Mars strikes me as dreaming. I’m a strong skeptic of life outside of Earth.
Pictures of the red planet show, what look like dry riverbeds. This would imply that at some point in Mars’ history, some sort of liquid flowed through these river valleys. The most popular hypothesis is that is liquid was water.
Since, life as we know it, requires water to exist, everyone is suddenly excited with the thought that maybe life also once existed on Mars.
I would remind those wishful thinkers, that although water is necessary for life, it is not sufficient. There are thousands of other conditions required for life. Let me make an analogy.
Let’s pretend there is lottery in which winner gets $1 billion. I announce the first number “25.” You look at your ticket and see a 25 on it. Are you excited?
That depends. Suppose I tell you that you also have to match another 999 numbers to win the $1 billion? I don’t think you’d be that excited any more.
Well, that’s what the life seekers on Mars are up against. First, they don’t even know if water was there. However, even if it was, they need to match at least another 1,000 factors, just to make life possible.
I don’t think I’d put a lot of money on this bet.
Posted by Ted at January 4, 2004 8:42 PM