CURIOSITY HAS LANDED! First Images From Mars

At around 1:31 am this morning, I saw the furious tweeting and internet frenzy on the landing of Mars Science Lab, AKA Curiosity, on the Red Planet. This, I thought to myself, is a historic moment that I’ve been waiting to see for the last few months!

To quote a meme featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson…

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome science is.”

I wasn’t even sure I could get to sleep earlier this morning…the collective nerdgasm on Twitter was just that intense.

Fantastic!

MNQ | Monday’s Noontide Query: Martian Life

Only this Caturday, the new Mars rover Curiosity lifted off on its way to the Red Planet, carrying with it the hope of finding some form of life, past or present, on the world of Edgar Rice Borough’s Barsoom, the planet of the pareidolia-evoking “Face,” and the setting of part of the 1970s Doctor Who episode, “Pyramids of Mars,” one of my favorites of the old series, BTW.

We humans have imagined all sorts of forms hypothetical life on Mars might take, from H.G. Wells‘ octopoid invaders, to the creatures of scads and scads of movies in the 1950s around the height of the UFO flap, then Doctor Who’s Ice Warriors, to possible bacteria-like organisms, perhaps living under the sterile surface of Mars.

My own first exposure to ideas of Martian life was during the late 1960s and the 1970s, when the true nature of Mars was being discovered by our robot emissaries, the Mariner and Viking probes.

Those were times of discovery and hopeful anticipation…

Though the results of the Viking missions were disappointing, the results honed our ideas on what forms life might take, life NOT as we knew it, and set the stage for further discoveries made, and those yet to come.

I even checked in on the Phoenix mission now and then, and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, to see how they were progressing, what new wonders they would uncover, and illuminate our understanding.

What tales will Curiosity have to tell us?

And so:

When was your earliest exposure to the concept of life on Mars?

How were the Martians depicted upon your first hearing of them?

What do you think about the possibility of finding life there?

MNQ is a question that I pose to you, my readers, and is posted each Monday at 12:00 PM. Do feel free to comment, and don’t worry yerselves overmuch… I’m not an ogre and I don’t bite…much.