Post by watermouse on Dec 27, 2006 0:02:03 GMT
Killer aliens are lying frozen beneath the surface of Mars, says a top UK space scientist — and he wants to wake them.
Planets expert John Murray believes life-forms on the Red Planet could be trapped in suspended animation.
Liquid water has flowed on the surface of Mars within the past five years
He warns they could wipe out all human life if they are brought here and escape.
But he still wants to crash a rocket into the vast frozen ocean where he believes the creatures lie dormant — and revive them by adding water.
The prospects for life on Mars were boosted last week by Nasa’s discovery of running water on the planet.
Now Dr Murray, UK lead scientist with Europe’s Mars Express mission, claims he has overwhelming evidence of the frozen ocean near its equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes.
He wants the rocket to blast a crater into ice floes in the region — named Elysium — allowing access to the aliens.
Then he would land a follow-up probe to scoop up the soil, put it under a microscope and add water. Both Nasa and the European Space Agency plan to bring samples of Mars 48million miles back to Earth in the next decade to be studied in a lab. That is where the danger lies, the Sun reports.
Dr Murray said: “It is going to be extremely primitive life. We are talking about bacteria.
“The only danger is if we brought it back and it escaped, we could have a War Of The Worlds situation.
“Earth bacteria killed the invading Martians in that. The Martians brought to us could kill off humans.
“We’d best have a good look at things on Mars before bringing anything back.”
Dr Murray’s “alien resurrection” plans may not be fiction like movie Mars Attack. He said: “On Earth they have brought microbes in the Arctic back to life after 30,000 years.”
Liquid water has flowed on the surface of Mars within the past five years, according to new evidence that suggests the Red Planet could currently be capable of harbouring life.
Images taken from an orbiting spacecraft have revealed two fresh features in the Martian landscape that scientists think were been formed by brief torrents of water as recently as 2001.
The remarkable observations show for the first time that modern Mars may not be as dry and barren as is usually assumed, and thus have important implications for its potential as a hospitable place for life.
Wherever liquid water is found on Earth, there is also life, and most scientists consider its presence a prerequisite for the existence of primitive extraterrestrial organisms.
If it sometimes exists on Mars today, it raises the very real prospect that life may not only have evolved there in the past, but could still survive there in modern times, timesonline.co.uk reports.
oh well........
Planets expert John Murray believes life-forms on the Red Planet could be trapped in suspended animation.
Liquid water has flowed on the surface of Mars within the past five years
He warns they could wipe out all human life if they are brought here and escape.
But he still wants to crash a rocket into the vast frozen ocean where he believes the creatures lie dormant — and revive them by adding water.
The prospects for life on Mars were boosted last week by Nasa’s discovery of running water on the planet.
Now Dr Murray, UK lead scientist with Europe’s Mars Express mission, claims he has overwhelming evidence of the frozen ocean near its equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes.
He wants the rocket to blast a crater into ice floes in the region — named Elysium — allowing access to the aliens.
Then he would land a follow-up probe to scoop up the soil, put it under a microscope and add water. Both Nasa and the European Space Agency plan to bring samples of Mars 48million miles back to Earth in the next decade to be studied in a lab. That is where the danger lies, the Sun reports.
Dr Murray said: “It is going to be extremely primitive life. We are talking about bacteria.
“The only danger is if we brought it back and it escaped, we could have a War Of The Worlds situation.
“Earth bacteria killed the invading Martians in that. The Martians brought to us could kill off humans.
“We’d best have a good look at things on Mars before bringing anything back.”
Dr Murray’s “alien resurrection” plans may not be fiction like movie Mars Attack. He said: “On Earth they have brought microbes in the Arctic back to life after 30,000 years.”
Liquid water has flowed on the surface of Mars within the past five years, according to new evidence that suggests the Red Planet could currently be capable of harbouring life.
Images taken from an orbiting spacecraft have revealed two fresh features in the Martian landscape that scientists think were been formed by brief torrents of water as recently as 2001.
The remarkable observations show for the first time that modern Mars may not be as dry and barren as is usually assumed, and thus have important implications for its potential as a hospitable place for life.
Wherever liquid water is found on Earth, there is also life, and most scientists consider its presence a prerequisite for the existence of primitive extraterrestrial organisms.
If it sometimes exists on Mars today, it raises the very real prospect that life may not only have evolved there in the past, but could still survive there in modern times, timesonline.co.uk reports.
oh well........
