If a microorganism were found on Mars, would anyone care?

Life on Mars! Unless it's E.T., Who Cares? - If a microorganism were found on Mars, would anyone care?

NASA scientists announced on March 12 that the Red Planet could have supported ancient life — though they don't yet have evidence that it did. A sample of rock drilled by the Curiosity rover revealed conditions that could have supported ancient microbes at some point in the distant past.

The news of even potential life made headlines, and there's no doubt the discovery of actual microbial life on Mars would, too. But the impact of finding life on another world might not be as Earth-shattering as one might think, experts say. That's mainly because the life probably wouldn't be asking to be taken to our leader.

"People don't get excited about microorganisms," said Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

Life on Mars?

For scientists, Mars life would be a big deal, McKay told LiveScience. Even more paradigm-altering would be to find that life on Mars originated independently.

It's plausible that Mars and Earth exchanged material in their early days, and that life found on Mars could have arisen from the same source as life on Earth. Such a discovery would be intriguing, McKay said, but "not as profound as finding that there's life on Mars and finding that it represents a second genesis."

"If we find on Mars evidence for a second genesis, that changes everything," he said.

Life evolving twice in the same solar system would suggest that life is common throughout the universe, McKay explained. Such a discovery would be huge for biologists, who would suddenly have an entirely new type of biology to study.

McKay doesn't envision any major shifts in philosophy among the public in response to such a discovery, though. The discovery of microorganisms on another planet wouldn't necessarily spur the need to re-evaluate humanity's place in the universe, for example.

"I would put it along the lines of the discovery of the Higgs boson," McKay said, referring to the particle theorized to explain where other particles get their mass. "It would be that sort of level of event. It would be out in the public and people would be like, 'Oh, wow,' but mostly it would be something that scientists would get into."

Physicists announced last week they had confirmed the newfound particle discovered with experiments in the Large Hadron Collider was indeed a Higgs boson, with other physicists expressing their excitement and exhilaration of the discovery.

Life versus life

Indeed, some data suggests that even the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrials wouldn't shake human society beyond its ability to cope. One survey of more than 1,300 religious individuals released in 2011 found that believers were extremely confident that the discovery of intelligent aliens wouldn't shake their faith.

"Theologians and religious leaders who have looked at this, it's surprising to me that they have so little to say — almost as if it's not interesting," said Ted Peters, a theologian at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif., who led the study.

Mars microbial life would be unlikely to have much of a theological impact, Peters told LiveScience. Most religious traditions hold that life is the creation of God, but don't commit to an exact explanation of how God did it. Life's origin could happen through chemistry multiple times throughout the solar system and not conflict with these worldviews, Peters said.

The discovery of intelligent life somewhere in the universe would be far more theologically significant, Peters said. Such a discovery could throw open fundamentally spiritual questions, he said: Are the aliens spiritual? Do they have a sense of morality, empathy or love?

Intelligent aliens could also provide answers about the evolution of religious belief, Peters said. Some scientists hold that religion is a primitive way of explaining the world, and that science will replace it, he said. If super-intelligent aliens were to both embrace science and God, it might disprove that evolutionary theory.

Discovering intelligent life would also be scientifically valuable, above and beyond any discovery that microbes evolved on Mars, McKay said. There are three big steps that get you to a species like humans: The origin of life, the evolution of complex life such as plants and animals, and, finally, the development of intelligence.

"We don't have any expectation that, on Mars, life did the other two steps," beyond possibly originating, McKay said. "Communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence takes us to the end of that comparison, so we immediately know that all three steps occurred." ( LiveScience.com )

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Everything you need to know about meteor strikes

Everything you need to know about meteor strikes - Incidents like the one over Russia happen roughly once every five years, and there's little we can do to predict them

On Friday, a meteor exploded 32,000 feet above the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, lighting up the sky and producing a shockwave that shook buildings and shattered windows. At least 1,000 people were injured in the blasts, the highest toll ever caused by an object from space. Video footage of the meteorites, while mesmerizing, is also terrifying. It "appeals to our most primitive fears," tweeted The Week's D.B. Grady. "It's an astonishing glimpse at the end of the world." Here's what you should know about Russia's meteor blast, and others like it: 

First off: What exactly is a meteor?

Meteors are space rocks that find their way into Earth's atmosphere. They can be as small as a grain of sand or as big as a boulder. They usually burn up during their descent. The ones that survive are called meteorites, and they can hit the Earth at speeds of up to 18,600 mph.

How often do they hit Earth?

Small strikes occur once every few months, but often go unnoticed. "Two-thirds of the Earth is ocean, so we tend to miss them," says Robert Massey of Britain's Royal Astronomical Society. He estimates the object that exploded over Russia was roughly 30 feet across upon entry, and weighed eight to 10 tons. Meteorite strikes this big are rare, but still happen about once every five years. In 2008, for instance, a big meteor exploded over Sudan. No one was hurt.

Can we detect these meteors before they hit?

Not really. Meteors like this go mostly undetected by telescopes, which are busy scanning for massive asteroids. And even if we do manage to spot an incoming rock, "there's not a weapon forged by man that could do something about it," says Spencer Ackerman at Wired. But don't worry: "You're thousands of times more likely to die by car on [your] way to work" than by meteor strike, says Brian Weeden of the Secure Earth Foundation.

What's the worst-case scenario for a meteorite strike?

The largest meteorite strike in recorded history was in 1908, also over Russia. Know as the "Tunguska event," the blast from the impact was more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It leveled millions of trees, but miraculously, no one was killed. If a similar impact happened over a metropolitan area, the city would be destroyed. "It's a global challenge and we need to find a solution together," says European Space Agency spokesman Bernhard von Weyhe.

Check out footage of Friday's strike over Russia:

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Mars rover Curiosity stands down after new problem

Mars rover Curiosity stands down after new problem — After recovering from a computer problem, the Mars rover Curiosity is sidelined again, further delaying the restart of science experiments.

The latest complication occurred over the weekend when the six-wheel rover entered safe mode after experiencing a software file error.

Associated Press/NASA - This composite image released by NASA shows a panoramic view of Mount Sharp, made from dozens of images. The Martian mountain is the ultimate destination for the Curiosity rover. NASA scientists said Monday March 18, 2013, the rover went into safe mode over the weekend, further delaying the restart of science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA)

Curiosity remained in contact with ground controllers, but it can't zap rocks, snap pictures or roam around until the problem is fixed. Rover team members had expected to resume activities Monday, but they now have to wait a bit longer — perhaps until the end of the week.

"We would definitely like to get over this and get back to doing something," said project manager Richard Cook of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which operates the $2.5 billion mission.

Studies at the Gale Crater landing site have been on hold since the beginning of March after engineers discovered a problem with Curiosity's computer memory, possibly caused by space radiation. The latest snafu isn't as serious, but any unexpected problem throws off the schedule, Cook said.

It's the longest stretch of inactivity since Curiosity's daring touchdown near the Martian equator last year.

Just before halting its investigations, the nuclear-powered rover used the drill at the end of its 7-foot-long robotic arm to bore into a rock near where it landed and analyze the powder.

Last week, scientists announced the results from the first drilling: Curiosity had discovered an ancient Martian environment that could have been favorable for primitive microbial life. Despite the excitement over achieving one of the mission's main goals, it has yet to find complex organic molecules considered the chemical building blocks of life.

Once Curiosity returns to normal, it'll only have a few days to work before a planetary alignment limits radio communication between Earth and Mars during most of next month. ( Associated Press )

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