Life on Mars? You bet!
In 1999, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) photographed gullies carved into the sides of Martian slopes. After in-depth studies, scientists believe the gullies were caused by flowing liquid water.
In images sent back by the Surveyor, one gully on a crater wall that was imaged in 2001 was found to have filled with light-coloured material when it was re-imaged in 2005. A similar new light-coloured deposit appears in a 2004 image of crater gullies previously imaged in 1999. The researchers suggest the deposits were made by liquid water flowing out from beneath the surface. The researchers estimate that each flow would have involved 5 to 10 swimming pools' worth of water. The evidence indicates that in the last five years, liquid water is flowing from underground to the Martian surface, and where's there's water, there's most probably life.
Couple this finding with the discovery of crinoids and other fossilized lifeforms, and evidence of life on Mars is strongly indicated. While NASA keeps much of the information coming back from Martian probes very close to its proverbial vest, we do know that the MGS suddenly went silent, and hasn't been heard from since November 5th, 2006. In an unusually open gesture, NASA asked the European Space Agency to help look for the missing orbiting spacecraft.
NASA re-programmed its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to try to take pictures of MGS on November 17th and again on the 20th. But the images did not reveal the spacecraft, perhaps because MGS had shifted in its orbit since last contact. Mission members say MGS may already be dead, and if so, it will continue orbiting Mars for decades to come. But its orbit is expected to decay with time, causing it to plunge into Mars’s atmosphere after about 40 years. If MGS is still aloft, surely MRO will spot it. If not, it should find the wreckage on the Martian surface. If neither of these instances occur, one can only wonder how a orbiting space craft can just simply disappear.
In images sent back by the Surveyor, one gully on a crater wall that was imaged in 2001 was found to have filled with light-coloured material when it was re-imaged in 2005. A similar new light-coloured deposit appears in a 2004 image of crater gullies previously imaged in 1999. The researchers suggest the deposits were made by liquid water flowing out from beneath the surface. The researchers estimate that each flow would have involved 5 to 10 swimming pools' worth of water. The evidence indicates that in the last five years, liquid water is flowing from underground to the Martian surface, and where's there's water, there's most probably life.
Couple this finding with the discovery of crinoids and other fossilized lifeforms, and evidence of life on Mars is strongly indicated. While NASA keeps much of the information coming back from Martian probes very close to its proverbial vest, we do know that the MGS suddenly went silent, and hasn't been heard from since November 5th, 2006. In an unusually open gesture, NASA asked the European Space Agency to help look for the missing orbiting spacecraft.
NASA re-programmed its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to try to take pictures of MGS on November 17th and again on the 20th. But the images did not reveal the spacecraft, perhaps because MGS had shifted in its orbit since last contact. Mission members say MGS may already be dead, and if so, it will continue orbiting Mars for decades to come. But its orbit is expected to decay with time, causing it to plunge into Mars’s atmosphere after about 40 years. If MGS is still aloft, surely MRO will spot it. If not, it should find the wreckage on the Martian surface. If neither of these instances occur, one can only wonder how a orbiting space craft can just simply disappear.
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