New analysis of data from the Curiosity rover reveals that much of the craters on Mars today could have once been habitable rivers.
  •  millie   ( @millie@beehaw.org ) English
    17•1 year ago

    I really hope that we find the first Martian fossil before I die, or like, drill into Europa and get some video of a probe being eaten by a squid the size of a stadium. It’s kind of crazy to have grown up with this idea that there almost definitely isn’t and never was other life in the solar system and now be seeing more and more how wrong that might be.

    •  PixTupy   ( @PixTupy@lemmy.ml ) 
      6•1 year ago

      I’m so with you on that. All these little steps towards that outcome make me so giddy and hopeful.

      I really don’t know why, but it’s just such an amazing thought knowing that life thrives or thrived somewhere else.

    •  upstream   ( @upstream@beehaw.org ) 
      4•1 year ago

      In our solar system the earth is perfectly placed for life.

      The assumption that rivers are a key ingredient for life is speculative and correlation-driven.

      It seems logical, but I’m pretty sure you can find planets with rivers and no life. We just don’t have the data to support the theory.

      •  Catsrules   ( @Catsrules@lemmy.ml ) 
        4•1 year ago

        It seems logical, but I’m pretty sure you can find planets with rivers and no life. We just don’t have the data to support the theory.

        Very true but I would say a better question would be “Is there a plant with no rivers and life”. From my understanding water and rivers were a huge part of how life became on Earth. I don’t know if I would go as far as saying it is required but I would say the odds of life is much higher with rivers then without rivers. At least from the data we have to go on.