What's the Obsession with Water?
A Perfect Balance >
The Mars Phoenix Lander finally made it. After years and years of planning and testing and engineering and innovation - and the most nail-biting 7 minutes in recent JPL history as it touched down - we have a robotic lander near the north pole of Mars.
It really is an amazing feat getting that little guy to a target 100 million miles away and safely landing it. But now I fear I risk sounding like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Why?
For those of us who read, eat, and drink space, we have listened to plenty of people over the years who spend their waking lives looking for life outside our planet. A noble cause to be sure, but if one listens to what is being said - I mean truly listens with slightly skeptical ears - there are some things being said which beg further examination and which tie into our latest Martian encounter.
Invariably a comment is made that goes something like this: To find life, follow the water. True, any kind of life, even the most simple, with its endless complexities, demands the universal solvent we call water. It is an amazing molecule worthy of several articles devoted entirely to its awe-inspiring characteristics.
So to look for water in the universe in hopes of finding life is sensible. Where we venture into nonsense is to make the implication that where water is there must also be life. As if water plus rock guarantees life. "Well, it happened here, so it must have happened elsewhere." Oh, must it have? Well, out comes my skeptical Scroogie science self who then asks, Why "must" life pop from nonlife with nothing else but rocks, water, and time?
Maybe we have heard the "If there's water there's probably life!" mantra so much over the years that we have become numb to it and don't critically think about it. But, as one trained in the sciences to eye all things with a healthy skepticism, I might ask: If life pops up so easily, how does it do so? If it is so ubiquitous, why can't we make it pop up in the lab? Why should we expect blind, random, mindless nature to "just do it" all over the universe?
Which often brings up the inevitable theological statement: If God is the source of life then He can put life wherever He wants! That is absolutely true. But my questions are directed to those who claim no invisible means of support, to those who claim that nature is all there ever has been, all there is, and all there ever will be, to paraphrase the late Carl Sagan.
The Phoenix, a remarkable little lab in its own right, may find signs of ancient water. That would provide us with marvelous insight into the history of our solar system. It would afford more evidence that either supports or breaks down countless hypotheses floating about concerning Mar's past. That in itself is a great stride for planetary science, and to that my hat is off.
But allow me a humble prediction concerning Phoenix. Everywhere we look in the universe - I mean everywhere - we pick up more and more evidence every year that we are one of a kind, this planet of ours. Earthlike planets are not a dime a dozen as once thought. Our makeup is extraordinarily and exquisitely perfect for life. I believe that Phoenix will not make a case for ancient life on Mars. On the contrary, I believe it will provide even more evidence that our planet is even more extraordinary than we now believe it is.
Might I be wrong? Of course! That is part of the beautiful discipline of science. But part of science also involves evidence and models, two things sorely lacking in the "life must be everywhere" scenario.
I hope all this starts some good discussion. Are we unique or is life everywhere, including Mars? Is there life because of a long random set of mindless events, or did Someone put it here? Why is there Life at all?
Maybe like its mythical namesake, the Phoenix spacecraft will bring to life from the ashes the Big Questions that we seem to have forgotten to ask anymore in our busy, busy lives.
Until next time, clear skies - and clear thinking.
Posted by Mark Ritter at 2008.06. 1 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
