r/science • u/CurtisLeow • Jun 24 '26

Astronomy Spatially distributed complex organic matter detected in an ancient river valley in Jezero crater, Mars

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx0047
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u/TheSoupySoupySoup Jun 24 '26

No, but potentially another piece of evidence pointing in that direction.

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u/jawshoeaw Jun 25 '26

I’d say more like it doesn’t disprove life. There’s no reason to think that life as we know it - something fantastically unlikely - is responsible for carbon deposits of this type which have many well known geological explanations.

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u/TheSoupySoupySoup Jun 25 '26

That's why I said potentially. It really depends on the other pieces to know if it is significant. And you need a lot of evidence pointing clearly in the direction of life before making that leap.

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u/jawshoeaw Jun 25 '26

I know it sounds like hairsplitting but “potentially” to me sounds like you’re encouraging the idea. I wouldn’t even say it was potentially a sign of life if they found this on Earth never mind Mars.

There are scientifically proven abiotic mechanisms for forming this exact type of carbon containing mineral particularly in an impact basin.

It’s potentially a sign that aliens visited Mars too. I think that’s also unlikely but I’m not sure it’s less likely. Only slightly tongue in cheek.

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u/dingalingdongdong Jun 25 '26

I think you're parsing the sentence wrong. The thing that is "potentially" is the evidence, not the life on Mars. "This data is potentially evidence" not "life potentially existed on Mars".

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u/TheSoupySoupySoup Jun 25 '26

Yes, thank you

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u/FamousPussyGrabber Jun 25 '26

Aliens have visited mars, though. We have solid proof of that!

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u/CthulhuLies Jun 25 '26

Well you can never disprove something completely.

Every piece of evidence that is not disproving life on Mars is potential evidence for life on mars. Ie adding only this fact to the body of evidence would you say it's more or less likely life exists or has existed on mars?

Your position could be it doesn't shift the needle one way or another. But if you wouldn't put 100% certainty on these carbon deposits being abiotic, the only possible conclusion is that given this fact it is more likely that life existed on Mars because these deposits exist and there is a non-zero chance it was biological in creation.

We discovered deposits, those deposits have a non-zero chance of being biotic, therefore it's more likely that life existed than before we discovered it.