Ever since man invented telescope, he is obsessed with finding evidence of life elsewhere. I remember as a school kid I was obsessed with Astronomy and wanted to become an Astronomer. Later, more baser desires took over and that explorer in me took a back seat. But, I always remained interested in that world outside our earth. Even now, it’s hard to believe for me that we are the only living beings in this entire Universe; It just doesn’t seem right….I know we dont have any concrete scientific evidence yet, but still…..
Since Mars is similar to Earth in many ways, it’s the most studied and analyzed planet to find evidence of life. Every now and then, there is a speculation about it. The most recent one is about this picture of a woman like figure on Mars taken by Nasa spacecraft Spirit
Although, as always, NASA scientists have dismissed it as an unsual shape of rock formed by bizarre Martian winds; Some scientists/researchers however disagree.
Whether or not there is/was any life in Mars is ofcourse very debatable, but Iam pretty convinced that there is much more to Mars than what we know from proved scientific evidence.
Because the Martian atmospheric pressure is so low and the temperatures are so extreme, it is not possible for liquid water to exist on the planet today. If any water managed to make its way to the surface, it would immediately boil away, or vaporize. However, scientists believe that was not always the case. Photographs of Mars have clearly shown deep gullies, channels, long twisting valleys, and other surface indentations that are likely the remains of ancient riverbeds, ponds, lakes, or even vast oceans. After analyzing evidence gathered by spacecraft, scientists are now certain that water was once abundant on Mars.
Even though Mars is barren and desertlike today, the knowledge that water once ran freely across the planet opens up an intriguing possibility: that some form of life once existed there. Robert Zubrin explains why he is one of the scientists who subscribes to that theory:
“All creatures great and small surviving in extreme environments have one thing in common: their environment includes a source of water, however meager. The fact that Mars shows a remarkable amount of evidence of both surface and subsurface water in its distant past argues for the possibility of life in the past or perhaps even now in an unexpected “Garden of Eden.” “
For years there has been controversy over the famous ” mars rock” discovered in Antarctica which came from Mars and showed some evidence of past microbial life which existed in mars 4 billion years ago.
So, there was water in Mars in the past..we also have some vague evidence regarding microbial life in the past. Now combine all this with the fact that Mars is older than earth. What do we get???
Isnt it possible that life existed in Mars at one point of time and then it came full circle ( probably they destroyed themselves after a nuclear war over water !!!) or may be what happened was that a very large asteroid hit it & the impact was so catastrophic that it destroyed everything. And then, may be the asteroid , after the impact, broke up into 2 large pieces and bounced out into space again becoming the so called 2 moons of Mars. According to the scientists, it is about the same time when life came to Earth. Bingo!!!
So, probably those microorganisms were the only survivors which could eventually reach Earth and start the whole cycle of life again; Can Mars provide us with a peep into our past and alter our future???
The bottom line is, dig deeper into Mars!!!!
Here is a very nice article if you wanna read more about it.
