Toxin in soil may rule out possibility of life on Mars

Until recently, accepted science held that all living ecosystems are based on chlorophyll production. Then extremophiles in the deep ocean were discovered to make energy from chemicals toxic to land life. Why should we assume perchlorate is harmful to martians?

Not sure what to say here.

toxic to life... as we know it, ya never know.

Check the official Twitter page of the Phoenix project when in doubt. It clears up a few misconceptions of this article.

http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix/statuses/878024173
http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix/statuses/878056735
http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix/statuses/878581782
http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix/statuses/878583776

And the main URL: http://twitter.com/marsphoenix

So what?, there a huge universe to explore! next stop Jupiter's Moon - Europa.

From Twitter:

"To answer many of you, perchlorate, if confirmed, could mean the soil is less friendly than the team thought. But not completely unfriendly."

What i wanna know is how do NASA know that this perchlorate isn't what aliens need to survive...?

I'm not sure what people expect to find.

Surely, there's nothing other than microorganisms, if that, living on Mars.

Well, oxygen is actually considered a poison in the rest of the universe, we're unusual in that we need it the survive, so who's to say that what mattbrawn said isn't right? They very well may need it like we need water.

Who's to say that this chemical has always been present? If there was life it existed long ago, it is very possible it could have been introduced long after life died on the planet.

i think that if as the human race just keep looking and give it a little hope we will find life on other planets.it dosnt have to be on mars but we cant be the only living things in the universe

Humans eh? We even have the capability to pollute a dead planet! What else are they going to find brought from earth?

We are still so primitive in the grand scheme of things.

Life survives in some of the coldest regions of the world.There is life in hot pools formed by volcanic activity and it has been recently descovered that there is life in the sulfer caldrons in the oceans which has some of the most toxic materials to life.But against all odds life exist.So why not on Mars.Please, these so call scientist are full of it.

We have worse compounds in our fast food.

We already left a earthling footprint and its toxic bummer.

Think for a minute of this: Our civilization obliterated Mars thousands of years ago. In the peak of our technological age, we polluted and destroyed Mars our mother planet, few of us survived, we landed here on Earth in order to preserve our species. Since there was nothing here, we started from zero, however we still had the knowledge, hence, Pyramids, Astronomy, Jesus, Buda you name it.
Now we are in the process of destroying this planet, we are looking for the next, Mars seems the natural extension, we lived there. Hence the contaminants.

Are we close to a sort of revelation?

So scientists are speculating if this toxin was originally on Mars, or it if came from the probe itself. I would bet that the toxin came from the probe, how about you?

I think the problem with our society is that we put too much emphasis on alien life forms possessing human qualities.

traces of Perchlorates can be found in drinking water so why would that rule out life on mars? ok the concentrations may be high but besides the chemical is used as an oxidiser in rocket fuels so its probally left over from the Phoenix lander itself.

Life is far more creative than Earth scientists.

Tell me why we are still trying to live on Mars again? Can we be satisfied and respectful enough to Earth so we don't have to infect another "poisonous" rotating rock in the universe???

toxins in the soil may rule out life on earth.