Are there really life on mars?

Question

Is really life on mars, i mean any beings that has life?

Answer 1

WASHINGTON - Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have stumbled upon alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist theorizes in a paper released Sunday.

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The problem was the Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life and didn't recognize it, the researcher said in a paper presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

This new report, based on a more expansive view of where life can take root, may have NASA looking for a different type of Martian life form when its next Mars spacecraft is launched later this year, one of the space agency's top scientists told The Associated Press.

Last month, scientists excitedly reported that new photographs of Mars showed geologic changes that suggest water occasionally flows there — the most tantalizing sign that Mars is hospitable to life.

In the '70s, the Viking mission found no signs of life. But it was looking for Earth-like life, in which salt water is the internal liquid of living cells. Given the cold dry conditions of Mars, that life could have evolved on Mars with the key internal fluid consisting of a mix of water and hydrogen peroxide, said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, author of the new research.

That's because a water-hydrogen peroxide mix stays liquid at very low temperatures (-68 degrees Fahrenheit), doesn't destroy cells when it freezes, and can suck scarce water vapor out of the air.

The Viking experiments of the '70s wouldn't have noticed alien hydrogen peroxide-based life and, in fact, would have killed it by drowning and overheating the microbes, said Schulze-Makuch, a geology professor at Washington State University.

One Viking experiment seeking life on Mars poured water on soil. That would have essentially drowned hydrogen peroxide-based life, Schulze-Makuch said. A different experiment heated the soil to see if something would happen, but that would have baked Martian microbes, he said.

"The problem was that they didn't have any clue about the environment on Mars at that time," Schulze-Makuch said. "This kind of adaptation makes sense from a biochemical viewpoint."

Even Earth has something somewhat related. He points to an Earth bug called the bombardier beetle that produces a boiling-hot spray that is 25 percent hydrogen peroxide as a defense weapon.

Schulze-Makuch acknowledges he can't prove that Martian microbes exist, but given the Martian environment and how evolution works, "it makes sense."

In recent years, scientists have found life on Earth in conditions that were once thought too harsh, such as an ultra-acidic river in Spain and ice-covered lakes in Antarctica.

Schulze-Makuch's research coincides with work being completed by a National Research Council panel nicknamed the "weird life" committee. The group worries that scientists may be too Earth-centric when looking for extraterrestrial life. The problem for scientists is that "you only find what you're looking for," said Penn State University geosciences professor Katherine Freeman, a reviewer of the NRC work.

A new NASA Mars mission called Phoenix is set for launch this summer, and one of the scientists involved said he is eager to test the new theory about life on Mars. However, scientists must come up with a way to do that using the mission's existing scientific instruments, said NASA astrobiologist and Phoenix co-investigator Chris McKay. He said the Washington State scientist's paper piqued his interest.

"Logical consistency is nice, but it's not enough anymore," McKay said.

Other experts said the new concept has a certain logic to it, but more work is needed before they are convinced.

"I'm open to the possibility that it could be the case," said astrobiologist Mitch Sogin of the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Mass., and a member of the National Research Council committee. But he cautioned against "just-so stories about what is possible."

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On the Net

American Astronomical Society: http://www.aas.org/

NASA's Phoenix mission: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/future/phoenix.html

Answer 2

Maybe a long time ago? Probably was just bacteria but even if they do find life on mars, so what?

Yeah they find life but its not going to change anything, they can't exactly move to mars just because they discovered life.

They really need to make new ways on how to make a planet habitable so that humas can move out from Earth and then ruin another planet.. lol

Answer 3

Just like Earth, Mars has no intelligent life forms...

Answer 4

Even abortion proponents won't argue that a zygote isn't "existence", what's at question is whilst an embryo is a "man or woman" with blood, a heartbeat, apprehensive equipment, and the potential of survival outdoors the womb not to point out the edge of unsleeping thought. Many abortion fighters would not stop their efforts might desire to all abortion grow to be unlawful. they might make greater their energies to prosecuting people who do not take care of their bodies to "their" standards. Morality can be fairly subjective and as such, our government should not be interior the enterprise of legislating morality.

Answer 5

Like us? Probably not. But there is a good chance that there was life millions of years ago and may even be microbial forms alive now.

Answer 6

Probably not, if there is you can count on them not being anything remotely like us since their living conditions are much different.

Answer 7

well, probably. we're not sure. studies still to prove it.

Answer 8

Scientists have long speculated about the possibility of life on Mars owing to the planet's proximity and similarity to Earth. It remains an open question whether life exists on Mars now, or existed there in the past.


History
Mars's polar ice caps were observed as early as the mid-17th century, and they were first proven to grow and shrink alternately, in the summer and winter of each hemisphere, by William Herschel in the latter part of the 18th century. By the mid-19th century, astronomers knew that Mars had certain other similarities to Earth, for example that the length of a day on Mars was almost the same as a day on Earth. They also knew that its axial tilt was similar to Earth's, which meant it experienced seasons just as Earth does - but of nearly double the length owing to its much longer year. These observations led to the increase in speculation that the darker albedo features were water, and brighter ones were land. It was therefore natural to suppose that Mars may be inhabited by some form of life.

Speculation about life on Mars exploded in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation of apparent canals — which were later found to be optical illusions. In 1854, William Whewell, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who popularized the word scientist, theorized that Mars had seas, land and possibly life forms. In 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization. This idea led British writer H. G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds in 1897, telling of an invasion by aliens from Mars who were fleeing the planet’s desiccation.

Better telescope imagery, and especially the photos taken by the Mariner 4 probe in 1965, showed an arid Mars without rivers, oceans or any signs of life. Intense UV radiation made the planet extremely hostile to life as we know it. Officially the Viking landers' biological experiments for microbes in 1976 were inconclusive, but most scientists hold that their findings can be explained on the basis of chemical reactions alone. Observations made in the late 1990's by the Mars Global Surveyor confirmed the suspicion that Mars, unlike Earth, no longer possessed a substantial global magnetic field, thus allowing potentially life-threatening cosmic radiation to reach the planet's surface. Scientists also speculate that the lack of shielding due to Mars's diminished global magnetic field helped the solar wind blow away much of Mars's atmosphere over the course of several billion years.


Modern findings
The electron microscope revealed bacteria-like structures in meteorite fragment ALH84001 A series of artist's conceptions of hypothetical past water coverage on Mars.In recent years speculation has grown again, however—prodded by a study of the ALH84001 Mars meteorite which concluded that it contained fossilized microbes. This explanation was disproved, however, and it was discovered that the worm-like appearance of the fossils was due to the coating of gold on the samples for viewing under a microscope (without the gold it appeared very rough, square, and generally more rock-like). Other scientists have subsequently sought to explain these findings on the basis of chemical processes. Both remain highly controversial within the scientific community. Other Mars meteorites such as the Nakhla meteorite were suggested to have evidence of life also.

Another glimmer of hope for past and present life on Mars has been revealed with the ongoing research into extremophiles on Earth which survive under the harshest conditions. Some scientists have proposed a biological origin for the annual appearance and disappearance of dark dune spots near the polar regions of Mars.[1][2]


Water on Mars
No Mars probe since Viking has tested the Martian soil directly for signs of life. NASA's recent missions have focused on another question: whether Mars held lakes or oceans of liquid water on its surface in the ancient past. Many scientists have long held this to be almost self-evident based on various geological landforms on the planet, but others have proposed different explanations - wind erosion, carbon dioxide oceans, etc. Thus, the mission of the Mars Exploration Rovers of 2004 was not to look for present or past life, but for evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars in the planet's ancient past.

In June 2000, evidence for water currently under the surface of Mars was discovered in the form of flood-like gullies.[3] Deep subsurface water deposits near the planet's liquid core might form a present-day habitat for life. However, in March 2006, astronomers announced the discovery of similar gullies on the Moon,[4] which is believed to have never had liquid water on its surface. The astronomers suggest that the gullies could be the result of micrometeorite impacts.

In March 2004, NASA announced that its rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that Mars was, in the ancient past, a wet planet.[5] This has raised hopes that evidence of past life might be found on the planet today.


Methane on Mars
As methane cannot persist in the Martian atmosphere for more than a few hundred years, its presence suggests either that it is being replenished by some unidentified volcanic or geologic process, or that some kind of extremophile life form similar to some existing on Earth is metabolising carbon dioxide and hydrogen and producing methane.

In March 2004, the orbiting ESA probe Mars Express reported detecting methane in the Martian atmosphere,[6][7][8] which had earlier been suggested by observations of the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope on Hawaii and the Gemini South observatory in Chile in 2003.[9]

Others have proposed that the a process called serpentinization, wherein the mineral olivine is converted into serpentine in the presence of liquid water, may be occurring somewhere in the subsurface of Mars and releasing enough methane to explain the observations.[10]


Formaldehyde on Mars
In February 2005, it was announced that the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter detected substantially more formaldehyde than anyone had reasonably expected, strongly pointing to other explanations such as microbial life. This claim continues to be widely debated in the scientific community.[11]Scientists skeptical to the measurements say that the data from the PFS has been misinterpreted.[12]


Ammonia on Mars
In the Martian atmosphere ammonia would be unstable and only last for a few hours. In fact a NASA scientist has said "There are no known ways for ammonia to be present in the Martian atmosphere that do not involve life".[13] For this reason, the detection of ammonia would be extremely important for the debate of whether there is life on Mars.

In July 2004 rumours began to circulate that Vittorio Formisano, the scientist in charge of the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), would announce their discovery of ammonia at an upcoming conference. It later came to light that none had been found; in fact some noted that the PFS was not precise enough to distinguish ammonia from carbon dioxide anyway