Death on Mars
Unfortunately, people often fall for charlatans. The latest is John Brandenburg, author of Death on Mars. By taking Brandenburg seriously, members of the paracast looked ignorant and gullible. His PhD belies a work which flies in the face of science.
Brandenburg would have us believe Mars had an indigenous civilization, of which some evidence survives, including the "Face." Supposedly, this civilization succumbed to predatory spacefarers. Brandenburg claims aliens nuked the Red Planet. They allegedly caused two nuclear explosions, one much larger than the other. As proof of his scenario, the author points to Xenon 129 in the Martian atmosphere. Xenon 129, he asserts, could only have resulted from nuclear blasts. Earthmen never detonated n-bombs on Mars, so aliens must've done it.
None of Brandenburg's claims are credible. No serious Mars scientist takes the "Face" seriously, nor any of the other putative artifacts. Years ago, better imagery of the "face" clearly indicated a natural feature. The artifact interpretation is not only unconvincing but impossible to reconcile with Martian history.
Contrary to one widespread view, flowing water does not indicate Mars was once habitable. That's fallacious. For billions of years, Mars has been almost constantly frozen. Circumchrysean and other outflow channels were ephemeral affairs, in no way indicative of "warm and wet" conditions. As Carr pointed out, channels could not only have formed under present climatic conditions but even required such conditions. Only thick permafrost plugs could've withstood all the artesian pressure, until they were broken by impacts or volcanic heating, releasing the water.
The Martian atmosphere was sufficiently dense to cause perceptible erosion only in the early, Noachian period c 4 billion years ago. Since then, the atmosphere has been extremely tenuous. Lack of much atmosphere ensures deadly bombardment by radiation, and temperatures plunging over 100 below every night. Conceivably life might've arisen, but it could hardly have evolved to an advanced state on the surface. Belief in a Martian civilization comparable to that of ancient Egypt is patently absurd.
As for the Xenon 129, it may have been of natural origin.
Brandenburg believes he's found the answer to the Fermi paradox--the alleged lack of evidence for alien life despite the high probability of its existence. Interplanetary nuclear warfare has sterilized the Universe. This is absurd. Alien visitors are here, but shun open contact.
Brandenburg would have us believe Mars had an indigenous civilization, of which some evidence survives, including the "Face." Supposedly, this civilization succumbed to predatory spacefarers. Brandenburg claims aliens nuked the Red Planet. They allegedly caused two nuclear explosions, one much larger than the other. As proof of his scenario, the author points to Xenon 129 in the Martian atmosphere. Xenon 129, he asserts, could only have resulted from nuclear blasts. Earthmen never detonated n-bombs on Mars, so aliens must've done it.
None of Brandenburg's claims are credible. No serious Mars scientist takes the "Face" seriously, nor any of the other putative artifacts. Years ago, better imagery of the "face" clearly indicated a natural feature. The artifact interpretation is not only unconvincing but impossible to reconcile with Martian history.
Contrary to one widespread view, flowing water does not indicate Mars was once habitable. That's fallacious. For billions of years, Mars has been almost constantly frozen. Circumchrysean and other outflow channels were ephemeral affairs, in no way indicative of "warm and wet" conditions. As Carr pointed out, channels could not only have formed under present climatic conditions but even required such conditions. Only thick permafrost plugs could've withstood all the artesian pressure, until they were broken by impacts or volcanic heating, releasing the water.
The Martian atmosphere was sufficiently dense to cause perceptible erosion only in the early, Noachian period c 4 billion years ago. Since then, the atmosphere has been extremely tenuous. Lack of much atmosphere ensures deadly bombardment by radiation, and temperatures plunging over 100 below every night. Conceivably life might've arisen, but it could hardly have evolved to an advanced state on the surface. Belief in a Martian civilization comparable to that of ancient Egypt is patently absurd.
As for the Xenon 129, it may have been of natural origin.
Brandenburg believes he's found the answer to the Fermi paradox--the alleged lack of evidence for alien life despite the high probability of its existence. Interplanetary nuclear warfare has sterilized the Universe. This is absurd. Alien visitors are here, but shun open contact.
posted by starman at 8:19 AM
11 Comments:
There is no credible evidence to indicate that life forms have ever existed on Mars. When Orson Welles made that radio broadcast, giving a dramatic verbal presentation of War of the Worlds, some people who began listening to it in the middle of the broadcast. They took it literally and thought that Martians were invading Earth. Of course, they soon found out that Orson Welles was giving a presentation about something fictional.
Neal Robbins
Very interesting. One question I have would be about the possibility of a perhaps up to 1-200 million period prior to 4 BYA, which might be long enough for some evolution?
Thanks for the comment Neal, and good to hear from you again progrev. If our own world is any guide, 1-200 million years would only be enough time for bacteria to appear. It's not known exactly when the Martian atmosphere thinned and surface conditions became lethal. No doubt it was very early in Martian history--the end of the Noachian, possibly 3.8 billion years ago. Btw I may add something o the post.
Very interesting again (and I look forward to seeing additional post if you do decide to). The 3.8 BYA figure rang a bell--wasn't that the time of the Late Heavy Bombardment? Any idea as to whether the LHB could have destroyed Mars' atmosphere? Also have you read anything about what may have caused the LHB? Also didn't I read somewhere that one of the gas giants (Neptune? Jupiter?) was once located far closer to the sun and somehow get evicted and sent out to the outer Solar System? To me, that would be really strange because the current planetary distribution in the SS seems so regular (4 little rocky planets, then the gap, then the 4 gas giants--reminiscent of Jupiter's moons' distribution, 4-and-4, which made me think that there may be a law about that like maybe that's the way satellites naturally form when allowed to form without great perturbations.
And of course I agree with you that the aliens are all around, surrounding us densely in all directions (don't know if you go that far?), but not yet wanting to reveal--perhaps when humans start traveling beyond the heliosphere they will figure that the time is ripe (to invite us to join the Galactic Federation?) I also do believe (wishful thinking?) that the aliens' civilization is so advanced that they no longer have wars. So the nuking of Mars, if it had actually happened, would be in violation of that dream--and yet I just now thought, perhaps their civilization is so advanced that they only have one war say every 4 billion years or so, that would still be admirably advanced, right? :)
But also anyhow it should soon become apparent, shouldn't it, how much xenon-29 there is on Mars--whether there is more than could be accounted for by leakage from rovers? Also it seems like if there really had been ancient warfare, there should be other odd remnants, strontium or something at least, or cesium or something? I mean don't nukes produce whole bunches of odd stuff?
I just had another thought, this demolishes my notion that the aliens are densely all around us, which is that if so, they would have built civilizations already on all the exoplanets we have so far observed. But well, maybe indeed they have and it is just that our telescopes are not yet powerful enough to detect even megacities on most of those worlds.
Yet I honestly doubt that we will ever observe any such cities on any of those exoplanets and so I am left again with the Fermi paradox. It is so hard to believe that no matter how far out we may go we will never find other civilizations? What do you think, Tim or Neal, will we find civilizations when we reach or even can see with telescopes details of the surfaces or atmospheres of those worlds?
Great to hear from you again Roger! Yes 3.8 BYA was the time or aftermath of the great bombardment--a time of many big impacts instead of occasional small ones like more recently. Big impacts cause atmospheric erosion as gas is blown into space. On the other hand many asteroids and comets bring volatiles to a planet. The Martian atmosphere was at its densest c 3.9 or so BYA despite the bombardment.
I never heard anything about Jupiter or Saturn once occupying different positions.
I've long thought aliens exist and are here--you've seen at least one of my works. :) And I believe they want to avoid devastating conflicts and maintain stability. I don't believe there was any nuking of Mars or even any Martians to nuke. Brandenburg may be just out to make a buck, or this may be a subtle disinformation effort. He did mention UFOlogists like Streiber and Friedman so maybe he seeks to discredit them, indirectly(?)
I don't know about the amount of Xenon 29. The Martian atmosphere is very rarefied though, so even a relatively small amount could appear conspicuous.
Many known exoplanets are broiling hot so I doubt aliens have colonized them. I've long thought UFOs are the answer to the Fermi paradox. Brandenburg couldn't be a believer if he thinks interplanetary nuking has caused the galaxy to be sterilized or "silent."
Btw it's Xenon 129 in the atmosphere, and the author also points to Uranium and Thorium on the surface.
According to one website Xenon 129 can occur naturally just like uranium and thorium...and the "face"....
Mars is one of the planet which does not support life of human being. It always frozen to it capacity. The climatic condition do not human being. No one can stay there.
Yes of course. I don't believe Mars was ever "warm and wet" except perhaps at the very start c 4-4.6 billion years ago.
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