About the evolution of life on Mars

I encountered a highly interesting article with title "Evidence for Past, Massive, Nuclear Explosions on Mars, and its Relationship to Fermi s Paradox and The Cydonian Hypothesis" by Brandenburg and Murad (see this). The article represents evidence suggesting that at least two massive nuclear explosions occurred on Mars 500 million years ago. The explosions are proposed to have been caused by a civilization with disappeared in the event.

Here is part of the abstract of the article.

The Fermi Paradox is the unexpected silence of the cosmos under the Assumption of Mediocrity, in a cosmos known to have abundant planets and life precursor chemicals. On Mars, the nearest Earthlike planet in the cosmos, the concentration of ¹²⁹Xe in the Martian atmosphere, the evidence from ⁸⁰Kr abundance of intense 10¹⁴/cm² flux over the Northern young part of Mars, and the detected pattern of excess abundance of Uranium and Thorium on Mars surface, relative to Mars meteorites, can be explained as due to two large thermonuclear explosions on Mars in the past.

Based on the pattern of thorium and radioactive potassium gamma radiation, the explosions were centered in the Northern plains in Mare Acidalium at approximately 50N, 3OW ,near Cydonia Mensa and in Utopia Planum at approximately 50N 12OW near Galaxias Chaos, both locations of possible archeological artifacts. The xenon isotope mass spectrum of the Mars atmosphere matches that from open air nuclear testing on Earth and is characteristic of fast neutron fission rather than that produced by a moderated nuclear reactor.

The high abundance of Ar cannot be explained by mass fractionation during atmospheric loss, and must be the result of neutron capture on ³⁹K, also requiring an intense neutron flux on the Mars surface as is the high abundance of ¹⁷N and deuterium. Modeling the ¹²⁹Xe component in the Mars atmosphere as due to fast neutron fission and the ⁸⁰Kr as due to delayed neutrons from a planet-wide debris layer, and assuming an explosive disassembly of uranium-thorium casing into a planet wide debris layer with 10 % residue, all three estimates arrive at approximately 10²⁵ J, or a yield of 10 Megatons. This is similar to the Chiculub event on Earth and would be large enough to create a global catastrophe and change Mars global climate. The absence of craters at the site suggests centers of the explosions were above the ground. The explosions appear due to very large fusion-fission devices of similar design as seen on Earth, and the Acidalia device, the largest, being approximately 80 meter radius. ...

Concerning the interpretation in terms of the Cydonian hypothesis, I am a skeptic. Also the existence of a highly evolved civilization at the surface of Mars at this time looks implausible if one believes that Mars lost its magnetic field and water about 3.5 billion years ago. However, recently Mars has local magnetic fields in the Southern Hemisphere (SH).

Why this is interesting from the TGD point of view?

The possibility that two massive nuclear explosions occurred in the NH of Mars looks highly interesting from the TGD point of view.

1. The TGD based proposal (see this) is that the two moons of Mars were formed in two explosions transforming dark nuclei with a rather small binding energy to ordinary nuclei and liberating essentially all ordinary nuclear binding energy and throwing out the surface layer of Mars or part of it, which then gravitationally condensed to form a moon. These explosions would have occurred below the surface of Mars. This transformation is the TGD counterpart for "cold fusion" (see this, this, and this).

   The age estimate for Deimos is a few billion years with an upper bound of 4.5 billion years in which case an asteroid capture would is assumed to induce the birth of Deimos. For Phobos the age estimates vary from 100-200 million years to a few billion years. The ordinary nuclear explosions would have occurred 500 million years ago. These limits allow us to consider the possibility that the birth of Phobos was accompanied by the local nuclear explosions.

   In some locations, the "cold fusion" products could have leaked to the newly formed surface of Mars during or after the explosion. Alternatively, the "cold fusion" could have induced ordinary nuclear fission at some loci. The absence of craters conforms with this assumption. An interesting question is whether similar traces of massive nuclear explosions associated with the formation of the Moon could be found at the Earth.

   It is estimated that life, if it existed on Mars, disappeared or was forced to hide about 3-3.5 billion years ago. This period marked the transition from a warmer, wetter early Mars to the cold, arid, and desolate planet observed today. Did an explosion throwing out the layer of Mars forming Deimos cause the loss of the magnetic field at the surface layer of Mars consisting of monopole flux tubes and essential for life?

2. What is intriguing is that the local nuclear explosions are estimated to have occurred 500 million years ago, the time when the Cambrian Explosion occurred on Earth. The TGD proposal is that Cambrian Explosion was accompanied by a rapid increase of the Earth radius by factor 2 (see this). Also the Cambrian explosion would have been induced by "cold fusion" in the core of the Earth and liberating practically all nuclear binding energy. Life would have disappeared from the surface of Mars 3-3.5 billion years ago in the first BSFR.

An attempt to build an internally constent narrative

If the signatures of life at Mars correspond to life at the surface, the explosions of throwing out the surface layers at the Southern and Northern hemispheres (NH and SH) should have also destroyed all signatures of life at the surface of Mars. Therefore the observed signatures of life should be assigned with the underground life. There is indeed evidence that the signatures of life do not originate from atmosphere or meteorites.

The above information allows us to consider two options.

1. Deimos and Phobos were formed simultaneously about 4.5 billion years ago. This option is not supported by the fact that Phobos is nearer to Mars and therefore younger.
2. Deimos was formed 4.5 billion years ago and Phobos about .5 billion years ago when at least two local nuclear explosions occurred at the NH and Cambrian Explosion occurred at Earth. This option conforms with the orbital data and will be considered in the sequel.

The signatures of life on Mars found by Nasa are in the Northern hemisphere (NH) and life would have disappeared or become invisible about 3.0-3.5 billion years ago. The TGD based view of the formation of the moons of Mars (see this) suggests that the formation of Deimos (Phobos) threw out a surface layer at NH or Southern hemisphere (SH). The Deimos-Northern (D-N) association was just a cautious first guess and also the Deimos-Southern (D-S) association can be considered. For both options the detected signatures of life at NH must originate from underground life.

It is interesting to see whether either option can lead to an internally consistent narrative.

1. Magnetic history

   D-N option: The surface layer of the NH exploded 4.5 billion years ago and led to the disappearance of the monopole flux tubes by a mechanism analogous to work on Earth and Sun (see this and this).

   One can represent objectives as questions. Why didn't the explosion creating Phobos destroy the local magnetic field at the SH? Or was there a global magnetic field at SH and are the recent local magnetic fields at SH its remnants? But why are there no local or even global magnetic fields at NH?

   D-S option: The local magnetic fields at SH would have been probably destroyed at SH, at least partially. Were they destroyed only partially or were they regenerated later? The explosion occurred .5 billion years ago would have destroyed the magnetic field at NH. The general thinking is that the local magnetic fields at NH disappeared already 3.0-3.5 billion years ago. Did they really disappear? Were the crucial monopole flux tube structure defining the surface magnetic field thrown out as Phobos was formed?

2. No signatures of life on SH have been detected yet.

   D-N option: The explosion throwing out the SH surface layer creating Phobos .5 billion years ago could have destroyed the underground life at SH and also the signatures about its existence.

   D-S option: One would expect signatures of underground life on SH to be more probable than on NH. The loci for the signatures are at latitude near the Equator: the loci could be outside the exploded layer but near its boundary. Since Phobos is smaller than Deimos one expects that the area of the layer thrown out is smaller for Phobos and spanning less than hemisphere. Could the gigantic explosion have brought living organisms to the surface near the lost boundary in the same way as in the Cambrian Explosion.

3. Can the local nuclear explosions at NH be understood as being induced by the gigantic underground explosion .5 billion years ago. The latitude for the local nuclear explosions is 50 degrees so that they would have occurred far from the equator.

   D-N option: The gigantic underground nuclear explosion at SH could have induced local nuclear explosions at NH near the Equator but it is less plausible that they would have occurred as far as 50 degrees from the Equator.

   D-S option: The occurrence of gigantic explosion .5 billion years throwing out a surface layer of NH conforms with the location of nuclear explosion. The proposed local nuclear explosions involving nuclear fission could have been induced by the gigantic explosion. Furthermore, the latitude for the Leopard spots, where the signatures of life are detected, is 18.4 degrees. This suggest that the Leopard spots are near to the boundary of the layer of SH thrown out and therefore have survived in the gigantic explosion.

Clearly, the D-S option is favored.

The role of zero energy ontology (ZEO)

The proposal (see this)/moonmysteries} is that the creation of the Moon and moons of Mars and the Cambrian Explosion were accompanied by a "big" (really big!) state function reduction (BSFR) changing the arrow of time at some layer of some gravitational field body. The gravitational field body in question could be that of the planet or of the Sun.

This "big" state function reduction (BSFR) would change the geometric arrow of time in internal discrete degrees of freedom of the system due to a small violation of classical determinism serving as correlate for cognition. In BSFR the system would "die" and reincarnate with an opposite arrow of geometric time assignable to the tip at the active boundary of the causal diamond increasing in statistical sense so that the active tip defining geometric time shifts during the sequence of "small" state function reductions (SSFRs) whereas the passive boundary and states at it are not affected.

There are two options to consider.

1. If the gravitational field bodies of Mars and Earth are the independent entities, the BSFRs for Mars and Earth can occur at different times.
2. If the gravitational magnetic body of the Sun is the relevant entity, there would be only two BSFRs giving rise to Deimos and Moon resp. Phobos and Cambrian Explosion.

Consider the solar option in detail.

1. The first BSFR creating Deimos could have occurred 3.0-4.5 billion years ago. The age of the Moon is estimated to be 4.5 billion years. This allows the possibility that the "solar" BSFR creating Moon and Deimos occured 4.5 billion years. The estimate for the disappearance of the magnetic field and water of Mars is estimated to have occurred 3.5 billion years ago. One could see this event as a consequence of this BSFR, as an analog of the decay process following biological death. The change of the arrow of time in the first BSFR creating Deimos would have meant "death" for both Mars and Earth.
2. The second BSFR would have been a "birth" giving rise to Cambrian Explosion and the creation of Phobos. In the case of Mars also the second BSFR threw away a surface layer forming Phobos and this can explain why the analog of Cambrian Explosion could not occur for Mars. The two local nuclear explosions could be associated with this BSFR.

Needless to say, these events could be seen as a dramatic evidence for quantum coherence in the scale of the solar system.

See the article About the TGD based models for Cambrian Explosion and the formation of planets and Moon or the chapter with the same title.

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.

For the lists of articles (most of them published in journals founded by Huping Hu) and books about TGD see this.