Life on Mars questions!?

Question

I have three questions about Mars so please answer them!

1. What evidence supports the theory that life existed on Mars in the past?

2. Are conditions on Mars currently favorable for life-forms?

3. Does most of today's scientific community belive that life presently exits on Mars?

If you have any other valuable info on Mars please tell me. (I need it for a report) Thank you so much =)

Answer 1

1. Evidence that supports the theory that life existed on Mars.

The most promising evidence for past life on mars comes from evidence that liquid water once existed on the surface of mars. Liquid water is considered the 'essential ingredient' for the evolution of life. Evidence for the existence of liquid water has been gathered in abundance by the rovers we sent to Mars - Spirit and Opportunity.

Additional evidence of past life on Mars comes from meteorites recovered in Antarctica. These meteorites were chemically analzyed and proven to come from Mars. Within these meteorites micro-fossils appeared to be present, suggesting that bacterial life once existed on Mars.

2. Current conditions on Mars are not as favorable for Life as they would be if freely running and abundant standing water were available on the surface. That said, living organisms are extraordinarily adaptive. If life ever did exist on Mars, it's possible that it found small micro-environments (underground???) in which to survive.

Also, because the atmosphere on Mars is very thin, there is little protection from Cosmic radiation and solar flares - this can be a problem for unprotected life forms.

Also - its possible that microscopic life on Mars may exist today, transported to the Red Planet by our own space probes from Earth.

3. Is it possible that life is currently on Mars?

Not likely, but not impossible. That's why we need to send robots, experiments, and hopefully one day astronauts to look into this.

KEEP STUDYING SCIENCE - It's the greatest hope for your species.

Stupid politicians, like President George W. Bush, try to suppress scientific inquiry - your future depends on voting for candidates that embrace Science and can read, speak and write.

Answer 2

1. None

2. No.

3. No.

Boring answers but Mars is still an intriguing place. We DO know that Mars once had conditions long ago that could have supported life but we do not know if those conditions lasted long enough for life to emerge. So there is no evidence at all that there was ever life on Mars. There is, however, plenty of evidence that water once flowed on Mars. There are even recent pictures that indicate water may still exist in liquid form underground. But life also need energy to exist. As the surface of Mars is very inhospitable, life would have to reside below the surface. And the only energy source that could power subterranean life is geothermal heat. And Mars does not seem to have a lot of that. But the most exiting new finds are the caves of Mars. We can only see the collapsed ones but before they collapsed they could have provided a safe haven for lifeforms as liquid water could have existed in quantities in a slightly pressurized environment with geothermal heat (the caves are found on the sloes of the Martian volcanoes). Going to Mars and finding such a cave that has not collapsed would yield some fascinating stuff...

Answer 3

1. Empty river beds and such show that there used to be water. Life is usually found around water.

2. Yes, but not us. It is believed that certain earth microbes could adapt to the enviroment, and that there might even be some there already.

3. I dont know ask them.

Some info:
-Mars' gravity is much less than earth.s
-Theres a big face on it
-Its moons are thought to be asteroids caught in its gravity
-the north and south poles contain ice wich is believed to have once been water that flowed through all those river beds and ocean floors.
-Temperatures are to extreme for humans
-Not enough oxygen for humans
-Because the atmoshpere is so thin, theres to much radiation from the sun hitting the surface for humans to withstand for a long time
-

Answer 4

Not really answering your question but think about it like this- If a spacecraft from Mars landed on earth in the arctic or the desert where there is little or no life, they would proabably sum up that there is no life on earth especially considering that they would probably never have encountered sand, snow or water and would therefore not know how to test for signs of our life, just as we can never be sure that what we find is really their lifeforms

Answer 5

1. There was once surface water, which is one of the things necessary for life as we know it to exist.
2. Not life as we know it. There is no surface water and the subterranean water is frozen. The atmosphere is too thin.
3. No life exists there now.

Answer 6

These questions aren't for your own curiosity, are they? And I'll bet this is your homework assignment, right?

Answer 7

http://www.alienshift.com/id20.html