The Prospect of Life on Mars

The prospect of life on Mars is very exciting to some and a bit radical for others. It is a question that I have always found to be fascinating. Could there have been life on Mars in the past? Is there life on Mars today? Will conditions on Mars in the future be hospitable to any life forms? Contrary to what the Science-Fiction books and movies might lead us to believe, scientists are not merely in search of other intelligent life such as humans. Scientists are looking for and finding the possibility of the existence of even the smallest, most primitive life forms. The promising evidence of life on Mars that has been discovered includes methane, magnetite crystals, and clues from meteorite ALH84001 that was discovered in Antarctica in 1984.

Mars was once thought to be completely inhospitable to any form of life. It was deemed too cold to sustain life. But, what if, under the existing iciness there could be biological sources creating such signs of life as methane gas? In 2004, methane gas was discovered in larger quantities than ever before detected. Methane is an unstable gas. George Musser of Scientific American writes, “On Earth, a methane molecule released into the air typically gets broken down by solar ultraviolet radiation in about 10 years. On Mars, farther from the sun, it lasts about 300 years. The persistence of the gas in our atmosphere indicates it is being replenished - in Earth's case, mostly by bacteria.” Obviously, this means that the possibility of bacteria exists on Mars.

This falls into place with discoveries made from meteorite ALH84001 found in Antarctica in 1984. Within the meteorite were found magnet-producing bacteria. Worry was that the magnetites were formed from substances on Earth and weren’t from Mars at all. According to Patrick L Barry of FirstScience.com, “. . . several facts support a Martian origin, including the deep embedding of the crystals in the carbonate material of the meteorite and the preference of the magnetite-producing bacteria for low-oxygen environments, making it unlikely that such bacteria would live where the meteorite was found.”