Yeah, if it's really similar it will blow brains for one reason, and if it's really different for another.
I hope it's really different. I don't want to be that special.
I hope it's really different. I don't want to be that special.
1) DNA based life with genetic overlap (potentially indicating that Mars life seeded earth life, or vs.vs).
2) DNA based life with no genetic overlap (possibly indicating original life on mars, or a common seed source for Earth and Mars)
3) Radical, non DNA based life (indicating original life on mars)
4) E. coli (indicating that NASA needs to fire their sterilization team).
I'm sure there are more fascinating possibilities that I'm not aware of!
Both of those would likely be a "more interesting" thing to study.
The most boring part would likely be finding DNA life which is quite similar, I'm not sure it would point to any specific origin and if it's metabolically going to be quite similar to some life we can find on earth the overall new science from it might be fairly limited.
Doubtful, given that we've been able to recreate multicellularity evolving in the lab. The initial jump to life, not so much.
Yes and?