Life on Mars

Emptiness???

   Are we really alone in this enormous universe? Is one of the most curious questions that mankind asks even to this day, and honestly why not? The cosmos as we know it is literally infinite, with its boundaries ever expanding since the big bang, even now as you read this the universe is expanding at an incredible pace. And so naturally we are bound to look for life in the not so empty void of space, and where else we would we go searching first than our very own Mars!

Did LIFE ever exist on Mars? 

   As fascinating as it is life could have very much existed on the martian surface long before anything was on earth. Water is the most prominent aspect of life, where there is water there is life.

                                                                              "Water is the driving force of all nature."

   If we look at the early martian surface we can say that water indeed flowed on its surface about 4.5 billion years ago. Taking a close look, we can see delta formations on mars, and again there are several river patterns carved out by water on its surface. The rock found on mars look similar like those on Earth, these are carved out by water

   The similarities between these two rocks are that they have a smooth surface. The rocks from earth are taken from under the water. The similarities show that there was water on mars, and where water is there life is sure to spring up.

If live did exist on Mars where did they all go???

Let us for now assume that life did exist on mars, the next big question would be
"where did they all go?"
There are a lot of theories out there suggesting what could have gone wrong.
Some believe that mars could have hosted an intelligent species such ourselves and the actions of the same left the planet inhabitable, much similar to what humans would end up doing to earth if we don't stop polluting and exploiting it. Considering it was true, we should have found remnants of a past civilization, but are yet to find any such supporting facts.
Another theory is that, Mars could have undergone a shift in its magnetic polarity in a distant past, this shift in the magnetic polarity i.e the magnetic north pole and the magnetic south pole trades places is known as Geomagnetic reversal. This has been witnessed by earth in several occasions.
During this reversal the magnetic field of the planet decreases drastically allowing tremendous amounts of solar radiations to irradiate the planet.

   Theorists believe that Mars could have been exposed to a solar flare more commonly referred to as a solar storm, while the planet was undergoing a geomagnetic reversal, swiping the planet clean of its atmosphere, water and all life that could have been thriving on it.

Does LIFE exists on Mars today???

   Given that Mars once could have sustained life, it is completely possible that some life could have made it past the event of extinction of life, there is a high possibility that some species would have evolved to adapt to the harsher environment of Mars. A near indestructible creature found on earth provides pillars to this theory, these creatures are known as Tardigrades, a microscopic animal which is about 0.5mm in size could survive temperatures as high as 150°C and temperatures as low as -272°C, these creatures could even survive the vacuum of space.

  

 "Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."

 
   Now coming back to Mars, though we haven't physically found any creature, we do have an interesting observation Mars has a high content of methane in its thin atmosphere, now the questions arises as to how methane is sustained in Mars atmosphere as it is less dense than that of Earth, on Mars the methane atoms would crumble within 2 months while here on earth it takes 2 years, and so we can conclude that methane is somehow being replenished on Mars. Methane can be produced either by some physical, chemical or biological reactions, but neither physical nor chemical reactions can replenish methane at such rates, the only other alternative is that it is being produced due to biological actions. Back here on Earth 70% of the methane is produced by bacteria this could be the same on Mars. Hence suggesting that Mars could still have life!!!

Could we live on Mars?

The next billion dollar question, could we colonize Mars?
Well given the fact that currently it has a very thin atmosphere with very little oxygen and that the surface temperature varies from 20°C to -153°C, it isn't a heaven for people to thrive let alone live.
But by heating by the atmosphere we could bring in a lot of changes, such procedures are known as Terraforming. so technically yes! we could live on Mars, certainly not today but in a near future this could very much be possible.