I’m also wondering and maybe there is someone here more knowledgeable than myself: is it not also possible that it spread from Earth to Mars? Maybe it was able to survive for a while but never thrive. I wish we could get DNA from it but I’m sure anything like that is long gone.
Since this came from a tiny section of Mars, odds are high that life covered the planet at one point. Life needs to last long enough to leave traces and it would need to be pretty widespread to leave traces where a remote probe can find evidence in the tiny area that it has explored.
Possibly, though it also could have been the other way around. Another possibility with panspermia is that a comet containing the “right stuff” seeded everywhere.
Seems like it.
I’m also wondering and maybe there is someone here more knowledgeable than myself: is it not also possible that it spread from Earth to Mars? Maybe it was able to survive for a while but never thrive. I wish we could get DNA from it but I’m sure anything like that is long gone.
Since this came from a tiny section of Mars, odds are high that life covered the planet at one point. Life needs to last long enough to leave traces and it would need to be pretty widespread to leave traces where a remote probe can find evidence in the tiny area that it has explored.
Possibly, though it also could have been the other way around. Another possibility with panspermia is that a comet containing the “right stuff” seeded everywhere.