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    Is There Life On Mars

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    Is There Life On Mars

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    Is There Life On Mars

    Uploaded by

    vsevolodovichnikolai
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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Is There Life On Mars?

    According to satellite data, a permanent lake with a diameter of 20 kilometers is


    hidden under the South Pole. In July 2018, the MARSIS Mars Expresss instrument
    found evidence of a lake buried with water near the planet's south pole. There is also
    evidence of liquid water flowing on Mars in the past, and ice water under the Martian
    poles.

    A growing body of evidence suggests that Mars may have had life early in its history,
    when the planet was a humid and warm world. Even though Mars had the same raw
    ingredients as early Earth and similar aquatic conditions, the necessary circumstances
    to form life simply never arose. All the raw ingredients needed for life on Earth were
    also abundant on early Mars, including the dense atmosphere and liquid water on its
    surface.

    In fact, some astrobiologists believe that ancient Mars is a better cradle of life than
    Earth, and suspect that life on our planet may have appeared on Martian rocks that
    were thrown into space by a powerful impact a long time ago. Observations from
    NASA’s MAVEN orbiter show that this process turned Mars into the cold and arid
    world we know today about 3.7 billion years ago. We now know that in ancient times,
    conditions on Mars were sometimes wetter than today's rather uninhabitable
    conditions, at least slightly warmer. Scientists now estimate that a large amount of
    water has frozen on the surface of Mars.

    If Mars once had oceans, they would not have stayed there for long, leaving little time
    for life to develop. Both Earth and Mars should have been frozen in their ancient
    history because the Sun was weak in the beginning, but water flows on both planets,
    which suggests that they both had to have a dense atmosphere to keep the surface
    warm. The Viking provided the first evidence that Mars has ancient riverbeds and
    extensive flooding, as well as all the elements necessary for life on Earth, such as
    carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus.

    The rover also discovered minerals such as sulfates and sulfides that could have been
    used as food for ancient microbes on Mars billions of years ago. It is now believed that
    Mars may have been habitable and that microbes could still be attacked in areas of the
    planet where liquid water is present. There is a small chance that microbial life exists
    on Mars today, perhaps under the ice sheets of planets or in underground lakes
    discovered by spacecraft such as the European Space Agency Mars Express.

    Scientists still hope that by collecting all the information, they can learn more about
    the evolution of Mars and its ability to accept life. Previous research has shown that
    Mars samples are unlikely to contain an active and dangerous biological environment, and
    Perseverance is looking for any signs that may have been left by ancient microbial life
    on the planet. The study by Curiosity not only showed how the Martian climate has
    changed, but also helped Perseverance determine which soil samples need to be
    collected to increase the chances of finding life. When the Perseverance rover
    embarks on a journey in search of signs of ancient life in the 3.7 billion-year-old Jezero
    crater, scientists theorize that not only may life on Mars exist today, but it may be far
    more widespread and accessible than previously thought.

    -Stephen Raymond

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