The evidence for alien life is becoming stronger and stronger based on the research results of the past few years. Get a glimpse of what experts have already found and what discoveries were made on Mars a few months ago!
Could we be alone? At first glance, this question seems so simple, but it is actually very significant. One of the most fascinating aspects of modern space exploration has always been the search for extraterrestrial life. As is well known, however, we have not yet been able to discover or contact extraterrestrial life forms.
The evidence for alien life is becoming stronger and stronger based on the research results of the past few years. Get a glimpse of what experts have already found and what discoveries were made on Mars a few months ago!
The search for extraterrestrial life
When we think of extraterrestrial life forms, images of flourishing advanced civilizations thousands of light years away from our blue home planet may come to mind. Despite all these spectacular thoughts in our minds, the actual search for extraterrestrial life is taking place on a much smaller scale.
The hypothetical life forms on other celestial bodies are primarily in the microscopic spectrum due to our current technical capabilities. The search for extraterrestrial life does not primarily take place in distant galaxies, but right on our galactic doorstep.
Mars is the first place many scientists think of when they ask “Where might we find extraterrestrial life?” because of how similar it is to Earth. Mars was probably like Earth once.
Life on Mars?
The Johnson Space Center (a division of NASA) announced in July 1996 that they found possible fossils of bacteria in a Mars meteorite called ALH84001. It was found in 1984 in the Allen Hills in Antarctica after landing there 12,000 years ago. While many scientists were initially excited, much of the evidence offered fell flat. NASA announced that after two years of investigation, “a number of pieces of evidence failed.”
Some chemicals and molecular structures were exciting because they seemed to resemble the byproducts of life on Earth. However, these chemicals and structures can form without life. Some are even found in deep space on comets, and scientists no longer believe they came from Martians.
Small spheres were observed in the meteorite, which scientists claimed in 1996 were the fossilized remains of bacteria. However, they are about 1000 times smaller than the smallest bacteria on Earth, so they do not resemble any conceivable life. Organic (carbonaceous) compounds were found along with the spheres. The organic compounds ended up in the meteorite after it landed (maybe water seeped in a few times during the 12,000 years the rock was in Antarctica). On Earth, carbon 14 is found in organic compounds, but not in spheres.
The environment on Mars was very different in the past than it is today. At that time, conditions may have been favorable for the existence of life. The Martian meteorite does not prove that life once existed on Mars, but neither does it disprove the possibility.
The search for life on Mars
The Viking program in the 1970s was the first to provide data indicating that there is currently no evidence of life on Mars.
In order to conduct a more thorough search, the Mars Surveyor program was launched. A total of five space probes were to be sent to Mars between 1996 and 2005. These spacecraft were to include the Mars Global Surveyor, the Mars Climate Orbiter, and the Polar Lander. Unfortunately, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Polar Lander have been lost. Scientists still hope that after collecting all the information, they will know more about the evolution of Mars and its potential to host life.
Conditions on Mars were wetter and warmer at times in the ancient past. Today, conditions are fairly inhospitable. Originally, Mars was a habitable planet. It has been shown that more than three billion years ago, Gale crater was home to a lake that held water that may have sustained life.
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