Life on Mars?

Question

For years scientists have said there is no life on Mars. No water. completely devoid of life. In the past two years, they now say there is methane in the atmosphere which is a byproduct of life or volcanic activity (no volcanoes on Mars) and recently they have found areas of water rising from the surface.

Science fact Mars goes green in the martian spring. Are we being lied to about possible life on Mars??

Look at the web sites looking at satellite pics of Mars outlining anomalies that look like vegetation in very small areas of Mars.

Coverup?

Answer 1

Life has been found on Earth in places that scientist thought life could never exist. See the volcanic vents in the mid-Atlantic ridge. This life (giant tube worms) thrive in conditions that would kill most known life on this planet. This tells us that we have to broaden our view of where we think life can exist and what life is. I guess we don't know everything.

Answer 2

There are volcanos are on mars.
Below is a link to NASA's pictures of Mars. Note Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the entire solar system is found on Mars.

Also - it has long been known that Methane is in the air. Mars used to have active volcanos and even a thicker atmosphere because of it. However, the magnetic field in Mars was too weak to be able to hold onto the atmosphere to withstand the solar winds of the Sun.

It is very real that there was once flowing water on mars and there is ice under the surface and at the poles. However, it is too cold and there is not a atmosphere that can sustain life on Mars now. Even if we shipped tera trillions of cubit miles of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen to make an atomosphere for Mars it would be blown away by the solar winds because Mar's internal magma has cooled and reduced its electro magnetic field to next to nothing.

the pictures you saw must have been fake. There is no green vegetation on Mars. Why would a scientist cover that up? That would be the find of the millenium. and with earth based telescopes powerful enough to see Mars up close - and millions of ego driven scientists there is no way not one would not report fining life if they found it!

Answer 3

Not all helicopters are black. :-)

What scientists have said for the past few years is that there is no OBSERVABLE life on Mars. And the only thing being covered up is their behinds -- it would be a career-ending move to be remembered as "the dork who told the New York Times that there was life on Mars, and it turned out to be a mistake."

I've been an enthusiastic follower of Mars since the 1960s, and have been an avid fan of the Mars Rovers since they landed. I took my kids to watch Opportunity's landing, broadcast live at our local planetarium. I've got Squyres' book (and if you don't know who Steven Squyres is, don't even bother talking about Mars), I've been on the JPL mailing list for years, I did everything but reprogram all the clocks in my house for sols instead of days.

And I'm here to tell you, the men and women researching Mars are hardworking, honest nerds like me -- and they will be the FIRST to pop open the champagne when (and yeah, personally I think the word is "when" and not "if") they finally uncover undisputed, absolute, irrefutable proof that there is life on Mars.

The thing is, we've learned thousands of times more information about Mars in the last three or four years than we've EVER known about it. The Orbiter's shots suggesting recent hydrological activity are brand-new. Pictures from Spirit and Opportunity, and spectroscopic data from their imaging systems, are giving us insights we've never had.

And in the next years, it's only going to get better. The Phoenix lander, set for launch in 2007, will have a more complete set of instrumentation, much of it specifically engineered (and more important, included in the mission) to look for undisputable signs of life.

So no, I'm convinced there's no coverup. The thing is, discovering life on Mars is going to be the single biggest breakthrough in the history of terrestrial science -- and it's also going to be the most controversial since Galileo said he saw moons around Jupiter. So the scientists currently researching Mars are being super, super careful.

My only concern, as a Mars buff, is whether Titan will show signs of life before Mars. The Cassini project has been as incredible as the MER project -- check them out while you're on the JPL Web site. Mountains, covered with hydrocarbon snow -- lakes of liquid methane -- weather, volcanism, geysers, Titan is an INCREDIBLY active place. I'd hate to have my beloved Mars get upstaged by a moon of Saturn.

Answer 4

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_life_050216.html

have a read of this about the two scientists who claim this. It is only recently on one of the Mars explorations that methane has been found and they plan to dig to find the source.

We're not talking little green men, it is bacteria that is the life on Mars and possibly cells frozen in animation, that if allowed to evolve, who knows what they would become.

I don't see how it can be a cover up as you put it, this is ongoing space research work from NASA, it has only just been discovered from the recent Mars mission.

We should be pleased that they are informing us of discoveries made on other planets or people would wonder what exactly was the point of exploring other planets and nothing being found.

Answer 5

I know that there are some pictures of Mars that look there is a place for vegetation on the planet. But try to research more on it and you'll see that those are not vegetation.

Mars is covered in Iron which makes it's color red. Definitely, no one can live on Mars due to its high iron content. Are you sure that there are no volcanoes on Mars, I've read in an encyclopedia that there are really volcanic formations in Mars. Some of which are bigger than Mt. Everest I think.

Answer 6

Good question you ask, i have seen many images of mars with seemingly green grass growing on them but these are easily faked, i have no idea why nasa the world governments and such would hide any evidence of micro biological life from us but for example if there was a race of intelligent beings on mars if the cydonia face structure and the pyramids are to be believed then there is good reason for governments not telling the people of earth, would humanity as a whole really take kindly to it?

Answer 7

CONSPIRACY THEORISTS UNITE!

No really, a good number of scientists believe that Mars did have primitive life at one time. They also believe it is in fact possible that some kinds may actually still be alive (probably dormant) in the rocks or polar caps.

Naturally, publicly announcing "We're looking for MARTIANS!" would be laughable and they would lose their funding.

Answer 8

No life on Mars as of yet,water seems to have been found but there is no secret cover up, anomalies is all that the pictures show which in good time will be cleared up.!!!

Answer 9

hmm i dont think they would lie to us about this. why would they? most scientists are independent and arent necessarily run by the government. so if its not the government then who... THE ALIENS?!!! all governments have conflicting views anyway, so whereas one government would cover it up, another wouldnt, so the truth would escape anyway. i cant see why people would lie about this. if theres no intelligent life on mars (which its extremely unlikely although possible that there is) it poses little significance for us (even if it is cool that there may be life on mars.)

Answer 10

I think so, we have a very similar climate to mars and new evidence of water almost certainly means life on mars,
our government's have lied to us about allot of things, then admitted them, area 51 for example and they may still be lying about of other things such as 9/11.
the possibility of life on mars is likely and i think we are more than capable of putting man on mars and its only our( the US) governments stopping us because their to happy with us not knowing as it is.