Possible Life on Mars

Code : Possible Life on Mars Page 1 In 1996 a group of NASA scientists announced that a meteorite thought to have come from Mars contained possible fossil evidence of Bacteria-like life forms . The meteorite traveled through space to Earth millions of years ago after being blasted from the surface of Mars , probably by the impact of a large meteor . The scientists ' evidence was based on the presence of certain chemicals and minerals - as well as microscope pictures of bacteria-life features - within the meteorite . Intense scrutiny of this meteorite may somehow have

been contaminated by earth life . Even though it is still possible that the rock does contain fossilized bacteria from Mars , most scientist now focus instead on what can be agreed upon the mysterious meteorite . Liquid water probably once flowed through the meteorite , sources of heat such as meteorite impacts or volcanism acted upon it probably contains at least some simple organic molecules that may have originated on Mars . These conditions-liquid water , heat , and organic molecules - are the requirements for life to exist on a planet . So even if the Mars meteorite does not preserve actual evidence of life on Mars , its most important message maybe that mars is one of the few places in the solar system where we know that the conditions were at least possible . The goal now is to figure out and where to look for more convincing evidence . Source : Bell , Jim . Mars (Planet ' Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD . Redmond , WA : Microsoft Corporation 2005

LIFE ON MARS

Speculations on possible life on Mars ( and other planets ) go back to the first days when

Code : Possible life on Mars Page 2 the nature of planets as Earth-like bodies was recognized . Mars in particular was , and is still considered as the most Earth-like of all planets , as it shows polar caps , an atmosphere with meteorological activity over a stony surface , a comparable rotation period ( length of day , seasonal variations , and a temperature not too different from that of Earth , compared to every other planet of our solar system . These facts were realized slowly during the 17th and 18th century , when Christian Huygens identified the first surface feature (systis major ) in 1659 and the polar cap in 1672 , G . F . Maridi found in 1719 that Mars appearance (specially the polar caps ) was changing from opposition to opposition , and eventually William Herschel in 1781 and 1784 made the first Mars and found its inhabitants ' would probably enjoy conditions similar to that on Earth in many respects

19th century observers became convinced to see dark lakes and oceans between bright continents on Mars , and that the seasonal changes could be best understood as melting of ice a summer , and freezing again in winter season

These views survived well until the first spacecraft , Mariner 4 , arrived at Mars and transmitted its famous photographs , showing a moonlike cratered terrain without any signs of considerable vegetation and measured atmosphere and temperatures much less comfortable for most creatures on Earth , although some experiments indicated that some...