Marikh (Mars) : Misi, Eksplorasi & Penemuan

chiKenliTeL

Usaha Manusia Mencari Bukti Kehidupan di Mars

PETA Mars pertama kali dibuat oleh dua astronomi Jerman, Wilhelm Beer dan Johann Madler pada tahun 1840. Kemudian pada tahun 1924, Lowell dan Lick Observatorium mencipta peta yang lebih sempurna dan berwarna.

Adanya kelengkapan data gambar yang menarik, mencetuskan keinginan untuk melakukan eksplorasi lebih jauh, khususnya berkaitan dengan kehidupan di planet merah ini. Selain itu, dibandingkan dengan planet lainnya dalam tatasurya ini, Mars lebih menunjukkan adanya evolusi kimiawi dan asal usul kehidupan.

Mars, planet keempat dari matahari yang besarnya kurang lebih setengah dari Bumi (berdiameter 6.790 kilometer), kalau dibandingkan dengan Bumi memang ada sejumlah kemiripan. Sejumlah kemiripan itu membuat para ahli berspekulasi mengenai kemungkinan adanya kehidupan di Mars.

Sejumlah kemiripan itu pernah dikemukakan oleh CP McKay tahun 1986 dalam tulisannya berjudul Exobiology and Future Mars Mission(Lihat Tabel).

Mikroorganisme

Dalam simposium yang membahas biologi planet dan asal-usul kehidupan yang diadakan di Washington pada tahun 1992, para ahli telah mencanangkan lima strategi eksplorasi ke Mars sebagai tindak lanjut dari penyelidikan yang sudah dilakukan dan agar pengembangannya lebih jelas dan terarah.

Adapun lima strategi itu adalah pertama melakukan penginderaan jarak jauh menggunakan pesawat ruang angkasa untuk mendapatkan citra yang rinci. Kedua melakukan misi pendaratan di permukaan Mars.

Wahana ruang angkasa tanpa awak Mariner 4 adalah wahana ruang angkasa milik Amerika Serikat yang pertama kali mendarat di Mars tahun 1965.

Strategi ketiga, mengidentifikasi bahan-bahan organik (suatu bahan yang mengandung unsur-unsur penyusun organisme), mendeteksi adanya fosil, dan mengamati adanya sisa-sisa kehidupan.

Keempat, membawa bahan-bahan riset dari Mars ke Bumi untuk diperiksa kandungannya, seperti yang pernah dilakukan melalui misi Viking I dan II.

Dari hasil penyelidikan contoh tanah, dengan radioaktif Karbon 14 untuk mendeteksi adanya aktivitas metabolisme organisme, ternyata tidak ada tanda-tanda proses biologis dan kimiawi yang mendukung adanya kehidupan.

Pada tahun 1997, NASA telah  melakukan lagi eksplorasi ke Mars untuk mengambil sampel dari Mars guna mengulangi pemeriksaan yang lebih tepat.

Strategi kelima, penjelajahan manusia ke permukaan Mars dengan tujuan menentukan sifat-sifat geologinya untuk menyimpulkan secara rinci. Strategi kelima ini bermanfaat untuk menentukan langkah-langkah eksplorasi selanjutnya dan untuk mewujudkan impian spektakuler, yaitu suatu lingkungan kehidupan yang layak huni seperti kondisi Bumi saat ini, pada abad 22.

Pada tahun 1994, NASA menemukan batu meteor yang jatuh ke Bumi kira-kira 13.000 tahun yang lalu di daerah Antartika yang diduga kuat berasal dari Mars, kerana mempunyai ciri-ciri komposisi kimia seperti pada Planet Merah ini.

Batu meteor itu telah diteliti di Johnson Space Center NASA, hasilnya menunjukkan adanya tanda-tanda jasad hidup awalan, berupa fosil mikroorganisme yang berumur sekitar 3,6 juta tahun yang lalu (Kompas, 9 Agustus 1996).

Evolusi ekosistem

Hasil temuan fosil jasad hidup itu bisa banyak mengungkapkan asal-usul kehidupan di Mars dan juga sekaligus sebagai perbandingan dengan asal-usul tempat hidup dan kehidupan di Bumi.

Sebagai planet ketiga di dalam cakrawala, atmosfera Bumi memiliki kandungan oksigen yang tinggi dibandingkan dengan planet yang lainnya. Dua juta tahun yang lalu, atmosfera bumi kaya karbon dioksida dan miskin oksigen, serupa dengan kondisi Planet Jupiter saat ini.

Bila oksigen sedikit sekali, berarti proses pembentukan ozon sangat lambat, sehingga kerapatan ozon di lapisan stratosfer rendah. Dengan demikian, radiasi ultraviolet dapat dengan leluasa menembus ke lingkungan biosfer, akibatnya akan merusak atau bahkan memusnahkan jasad hidup di bumi.

Tetapi ada teori yang berbeda. Ada fenomena yang belum terungkap dengan terang. Teori itu menyatakan, justru radiasi ultraviolet itu, diduga, telah memunculkan evolusi kimia yang dengan perantaraan bahan-bahan organik dapat terjadi substansi pembentuk kehidupan pionir.

Teori itu seperti teori buah pikir Harold Urey, bahwa energi radiasi sinar kosmis dan arus listrik dari halilintar akan mengubah metana, amonia, hidrogen, dan uap air di atmosfer menjadi bahan-bahan pembentuk kehidupan. Kemudian oleh Stainley Miller, teori Harold Urey itu diujinya dengan eksperimen. Hasilnya terbentuknya asam amino yang merupakan komponen dasar protein, sedangkan protein adalah substansi dasar pembentuk jasad hidup.

Berdasarkan teori ini dan didukung dengan kondisi atmosfer yang miskin oksigen, bisa memunculkan kehidupan pionir anaerob (kehidupan makhluk hidup yang tidak membutu*kan oksigen dari udara luar).

Dalam rentang waktu yang sangat panjang, kehidupan awal ini bertahan di perairan. Pada tahap evolusi berikutnya, kurang lebih 600 juta tahun yang lalu organisme anaerob berkembang menjadi organisme bersel banyak, berbarengan dengan bertambahnya kandungan oksigen di atmosfer sampai kurang lebih 0,6 persen. Saat ini kandungan oksigen di atmosfer Bumi 20 persen.

Selanjutnya pada jaman Paleozoik, kehidupan mulai menempati daratan. Lalu diikuti dengan tumbuh berkembangnya tumbuh-tumbuhan yang memacu peningkatan konsentrasi oksigen. Kemantapan oksigen di atmosfer menumbuhsuburkan binatang-binatang tingkat tinggi dan akhirnya mulailah kehidupan manusia.

Kalau menengok kembali hasil temuan NASA itu, dapat diduga kehidupan di Mars telah punah karena ekosistem telah berevolusi menjadi kondisi yang tidak toleran terhadap kehidupan, akibat dari dalam sendiri ataupun dari luar seperti radiasi yang mematikan.

Dan tidak menutup kemungkinan, suatu saat dapat ditemukan bukti-bukti lain seiring dengan perkembangan eksplorasi manusia ke Mars. Tidak hanya berupa bukti adanya kehidupan masa lampau tetapi juga ditemukan jasad hidup pionir yang akan merombak ekosistemnya.

Kalaulah mungkin, entah jutaan atau milyaran tahun lagi, ekosistem Mars akan berevolusi seperti yang terjadi pada Bumi, maka pada akhirnya Bumi akan mempunyai teman planet yang dihuni makhluk hidup.

Atau malah sebaliknya, kehidupan beralih dari Bumi ke Mars karena Bumi telah hancur, akibat ulah manusia yang merusak lingkungan Bumi. Pasti umat manusia tidak menghendaki Bumi tidak bisa dihuni lagi, sehingga penghuninya menjaga lingkungannya demi kelestarian Bumi ini. Tentu kita semua berkehendak generasi berikutnya dapat hidup damai dan nyaman, di Bumi maupun di Mars. *

( Waluyo Eko Cahyono, biologiwan antariksa, staf peneliti Lapan, Bandung).

PERBANDINGAN MARS DAN BUMI
        Properti        Mars muda        Bumi muda
        Air        Ada tanda-tanda tempat aliran air        Lautan
        Suhu        >273 derajat Kelvin        kurang-lebih 273 derajat K
        Atmosfer        CO2, N2, H2O        CO2, N2, H2O
                kurang lebih 1 atm        >1 atm
        Masa ketebalan        4,4 milyar tahun-        4,2 milyar tahun-sekarang
        Atmosfer        3,5 milyar tahun (?)       
        Kehidupan        ?        Bermacam-macam kehidupan
                        pada 3,5 milyar tahun

seladanganas

teori mengenai hidupan yg berasal dari asid amino membentuk haiwan satu sel, byk sel dan akhirnya haiwan spt sekarang ini telah dibuktikan menyalahi hukum kedua termodinamik; entropi increases with time.

chiKenliTeL

x pahama la

padlie

A U.S. scientist has advanced a theory about life on Mars that has members of a National Research Council panel nicknamed the "weird life" committee nodding their heads -- slightly -- and may entice NASA to look in a different direction.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch's research emphasizes what worries the panel: that scientists may be too Earth-centric when looking for extraterrestrial life.

The problem for scientists is that "you only find what you're looking for," said Penn State University geosciences professor Katherine Freeman, a reviewer of the NRC work.

The search for life by two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have killed the life they found, Schulze-Makuch wrote in a paper presented at a meeting Sunday of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

The problem was the Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life and didn't recognize it, he said.

In the '70s, the Viking mission discovered no signs of life. But it was looking for Earthlike life, in which salt water is the internal liquid of living cells. Given the cold dry conditions of Mars, that life could have evolved on Mars with the key internal fluid consisting of a mix of water and hydrogen peroxide, said Schulze-Makuch.

That's because a water-hydrogen peroxide mix stays liquid at very low temperatures (68 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, or -56 degrees Celsius), doesn't destroy cells when it freezes, and can suck scarce water vapor out of the air.

The Viking experiments of the '70s wouldn't have noticed alien hydrogen peroxide-based life. In fact, they would have killed it by drowning and overheating the microbes.

One Viking experiment seeking life on Mars poured water on soil. That would have essentially drowned hydrogen peroxide-based life, Schulze-Makuch said. A different experiment heated the soil to see if something would happen, but that would have baked Martian microbes, he said.

"The problem was that they didn't have any clue about the environment on Mars at that time," Schulze-Makuch said. This kind of adaptation makes sense from a biochemical viewpoint."

Even Earth has something somewhat related, he said, pointing to an Earth bug called the bombardier beetle, which produces a boiling-hot spray that is 25 percent hydrogen peroxide as a defense weapon.

Schulze-Makuch acknowledges he can't prove Martian microbes exist, but given the Martian environment and how evolution works, "it makes sense."

This new report, based on a more expansive view of where life can take root, may have NASA looking for a different type of Martian life form when its next Mars spacecraft is launched later this year, one of the space agency's top scientists told The Associated Press.

In recent years, scientists have found life on Earth in conditions that were once thought too harsh, such as an ultra-acidic river in Spain and ice-covered lakes in Antarctica.

A new NASA Mars mission called Phoenix is set for launch this summer, and one of the scientists involved said he is eager to test the new theory about life on Mars.

However, scientists must come up with a way to do that using the mission's existing scientific instruments, said NASA astrobiologist and Phoenix co-investigator Chris McKay. He said the WSU scientist's paper sparked his interest.

"Logical consistency is nice, but it's not enough anymore," McKay said.

Other experts said the new concept has a certain logic to it, but more work is needed before they are convinced.

"I'm open to the possibility that it could be the case," said astrobiologist Mitch Sogin of the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Mass., and a member of the National Research Council committee. But he cautioned against "just-so stories about what is possible."

Source:Xinhua/Agencies

seladanganas

hukum kedua termodimik berkaitan dgn arah masa. sebagai contoh; apabila satu ketul bola bergerak di langit gelap, ngko tak tahu mana depan mana belakang dan difilemkan bola terbang tu. bil ngko reverse filem tu tak tahu bol tu bejalan ke depan ke atau kebelakang. cth kedua; seketul cawan jatuh dari atas meja, sampainya ke lantai bekecai pecah seribu. bila cawan jatuh tadi difilemkan ngko tahu bila filem direversekan yakni cawan berderai seribu bertaut menjadi satu dannaik keatas meja. hukum kedua termodinamik mengatakan disorder increase with time. jadi cawan yg pecah tadi disorder. disebabkan hukum kedua termodinamik lah kita mendapati haba berpindah dari jasad bersuhu tinggi ke jasad bersuhu rendah dan bukan sebaliknya. semua makhluk organic adalah tercipta struktur proteinya dari arahan DNA yg dibawa oleh RNA. struktur DNA adalah satu struktur yg amat kompleks, lebih kompleks dari perisian komputer walaupun utk organisma sekecil virus. jadi apabila saintis berpendapat jika ada air, sebatian karbon, semuanya ini boleh mengatur diri mereka sendiri membentuk organisma yg lebih kompleks dgn sendirinya menyalahi hukum kedua termodinamik.

nazgolol

NASA Rover Finds Surprising Evidence for Mars' Watery Past

SPACE.com Staff

SPACE.com
Mon May 21, 11:00 AM ET







The strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now has been unearthed by NASA's Spirit rover.

A patch of Martian soil kicked up and analyzed by Spirit appears to be rich in silica, which suggests it would have required water to produce.  

Chemical analysis performed by the rover's robotic arm-mounted science instruments measured a composition of about 90 percent pure silica -- a material commonly found in quartz on Earth -- for the bit of Martian dirt, said mission scientists, who first heard of the find during a teleconference.

"You could hear people gasp in astonishment," said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for NASA's twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "This is a remarkable discovery."


Draggin' the line

This discovery came about unexpectedly as the result of a mechanical failure.

Both Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity completed their original three-month missions in April 2004, and are aging. One of Spirit's six wheels no longer rotates, gouging a deep impression as it drags through soil. That scraping has exposed several patches of bright soil, leading to some of Spirit's biggest discoveries in its Gusev Crater exploration site, including the most recent find.

Spirit had previously found other indicators of long-ago water at the site, such as patches of water-bearing, sulfur-rich soil, alteration of minerals, and evidence of explosive volcanism.

One possible origin for the silica may have been interaction of soil with acid vapors produced by volcanic activity in the presence of water, though the material could also have formed in water in a hot spring environment,   NASA said in a statement. The latest discovery adds compelling new evidence for ancient conditions that might have been favorable for life, the space agency added.

Researchers informally dubbed the newly exposed patch of soil "Gertrude Weise," after a player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

"We've looked at dozens of disturbed soil targets in the rover tracks, and this is the first one that shows a high silica signature," said Steve Ruff, of Arizona State University in Tempe, who first proposed using Spirit's thermal emission spectrometer to study the overturned soil's mineral composition last month.


Heart of glass

The silica readings in the overturned soil prompted mission managers to drive Spirit close enough to touch the soil with the rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. Silica commonly occurs on Earth as the mineral quartz, and is the main component of window glass, NASA said. The Martian silica at the Gertrude Weise patch is non-crystalline, with no detectable quartz, the agency added.

Spirit worked within about 50 yards of the Gertrude Weise area for more than 18 months before the discovery was made.

"This is a target-rich environment, and it is a good thing we didn't go hurrying through it," said Squyres.

Atomic_Omnikid

I thought mars has frozen ice in the pole of its planet..

dexa

Asteroid may hit Mars in next month
By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer Fri Dec 21



This image provided by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
shows a close-up of the red planet...



LOS ANGELES - Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday.

"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees.

Scientists tracking the asteroid, currently halfway between Earth and Mars, initially put the odds of impact at 1 in 350 but increased the chances this week. Scientists expect the odds to diminish again early next month after getting new observations of the asteroid's orbit, Chesley said.

"We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact," he said.

If the asteroid does smash into Mars, it will probably hit near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian plains since 2004. The robot is not in danger because it lies outside the impact zone. Speeding at 8 miles a second, a collision would carve a hole the size of the famed Meteor Crater in Arizona.

In 1994, fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked into Jupiter, creating a series of overlapping fireballs in space. Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.

"Unlike an Earth impact, we're not afraid, but we're excited," Chesley said.

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would be an interesting phenomena
can't wait to find out the affect it has on mars though -
those asteroids are bound to hit either mars or jupiters after all
there are asteroid belts orbiting between them -

kacang^soya

Haku dgr lak asteroid sebesar berganda2 dari bumi nak hentam bumi in year 2012...wallahualam

suria8782

omigod.! omigod!....

alphawolf

Satu grup kata asteroid nak hantam...satu grup kata planet NIbiru nak tumpang lalu....

kurga

salam semua..aku baru kat bod nie..so pagi tadi member aku la yang cerita benda nie..so, aku nak kongsi la apa yg aku dapat nie.. kalau da ade.. harap mod merged kan lah yer... rasa cam best jer.. pastu kat bod sini la plak yang layak untuk dipaste kan info nyer..

NASA images spark life on Mars speculations
London: Life on Mars? Well, bizarre images have emerged showing a mystery female figure walking down a hill on the arid planet.

Thephoto of what looks like a naked woman with her arm outstretched wasamong several taken on the red planet and sent back to Earth by NASA'sMars explorer Spirit, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed website.

Thoughno official confirmation has come from NASA whether the figure is analien or an optical illusion caused by a landscape on Mars, it has setthe Internet abuzz that there really is life on Mars.

Asone enthusiast put it on the website, "These pictures are amazing. Icouldn't believe my eyes when I saw what appears to be a naked alienrunning around on Mars."

Thenews of the mystery woman on Mars came just days after a team of Frenchscientists claimed to have discovered proof that the red planetpossesses high-level dense clouds of dry ice, which scud across itsorange sky.

Usingdata obtained by the OMEGA spectrometer on board ESA's Mars Express,the team found the existence of the ice clouds which sometimes becomeso dense that they throw quite dark shadows on the dusty surface of thered planet.

"Thisis the first time that carbon dioxide ice clouds on Mars have beenimaged and identified from above. This is important because the imagestell us not only about their shape, but also their size and density."

"Previously,we had to rely on indirect information. However, it is very difficultto separate the signals coming from the clouds, atmosphere andsurface," according to lead scientist Franck Montmessin of the Serviced'Aeronomie at University of Versailles.

yaminz

Bukan super impose k???

kurga

itu lah... rasa macam jer.. pasal masa aku memula tengok jer.. da nampak macam bigfoot...   x tau la kalau diorang saja nak wat gimik utk tahun 2008 ni..

hitamputih

cool!

tgk kat MHI tadi. tp lebih kepada terpkir batu actually

mieza386

bukan ker dia bleh amik video picture ker yg nasa punya kereta setelite tuu.... pastuh takder ker imej susulan yg tunjukkan benda tuh bergerak....

sunfizz

ala beb bigfoot pon omputih leh tipu kita inikan pula evident that life on mars exist...lagi la sonang....cite star wars pon sampai 6 episod diaorg leh wat...apapon info ko pagi mmg menarik

HOHOHO

bubpallo

hahhaa..lawak lak aku tgk..cam bigfoot ler plak...

kurga

member aku pun cam ko tam.. dia tengok macam batu... tapi betul la kata mieza.. aku pun tertanya gak.. benda lain dia leh tangkap bergerak.. tapi yang ni cuma dapat imej statik jer...aku cuba gak search gambar video.. tapi sama gak takde yg bergerak.. yg bergerak pun gambar nye bertukar-2..

@sunfizz, yer laa... aku rasa pun camtu gak... amerika nie kan suka bagi orang panik pastu dia lah yg konon nye penyelamat dan tenang kan orang...

cicadas141

Pe die tgh wat tu...basking in the sun? Macam yang slalu omputih wat tu ek?