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Anonymous-USA t1_j6kej9h wrote

Xenobiologist. Earth is their only pitri dish, so they study all the extreme environments and understand the life that lives in them. Including sources of energy other than starlight. It’s important foundational work for the Mars and future missions on how to even identify and define “life” and potentially find microbial life in our own solar system. And whether that life could survive planet hopping from collisions. The Earth constantly passes through extraplanetary meteor debris.

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Narrow-Effective-995 OP t1_j6kewfe wrote

Yeah, I kind of pigeon holed the discussion by referring strictly to "intelligent life", but any life would be great to identify. Isn't there some evidence that life existed on Mars?

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Anonymous-USA t1_j6kp8yb wrote

It’s all circumstantial and debatable. The Mars meteors with embedded gasses that “can only be explained through microbial life” has been disputed/explained as well.

The headlines are sensationalized but after it’s actually published, peer reviewed, and counter argued — well, those don’t make the front page 🤷‍♂️

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