Since the Mars Phoenix team has confirmed that water exists on Mars, how long before we find a living microbe?

Question

Or, if we dig deeper into the soil, what about a frozen dinosaur carcass?

Answer 1

You see, it's not really lifeforms that we're so worried about (since the chance of finding them are rather significantly low), it's impurities in water that they're looking to find that'll tell them the bigger story of whether or not life existed on Mars, what happened, etc.

Answer 2

Can you expect life wherever there is water? That is one of the most interesting unanswered questions in science.

Dinosaurs?  Not a chance.  Even if there ever were advanced life on Mars, it would have developed in its own completely different direction.

Answer 3

Unfortunately when Phoenix landed it contaminated all the soil around it with rocket fuel, so no microbes will be found there as Phoenix is a simple lander, not a rover, that means its stuck it its own puddle of sh*t.

See http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoeni... . This shows clearly that there is a problem with the landers chemical analyses but NASA don't want to look like fools again as they did with Phoenix's predecessor the Mars Polar Lander several years ago. They were made to look fools last time as it crashed. The reason last time? - NASA programmed the original MSP spacecraft orbit in feet and inches, but the Europeans did their related components in metres,  the cause of the crash was kept rather quiet.

Sorry to break the bad news, that has been known by most for a few weeks now.

As for a dinosaur carcass, what have you been drinking, that's crackers.

Answer 4

That depends on other conditions. If only water is present, we have one prerequisite for life as we know it. However, without basic amino acids, we cannot envision life like it is on Earth.

The searches for life have been fruitless so far, but that was for life as we know it.