“Whether life is on Mars or not is unknown to science,” this common aphorism hailing from a good old Soviet film, it seems, is no longer relevant. Recent studies of the Red Planet have clarified the situation. Scientists can say that now there is no life there, if, of course, we mean by this term the presence of protein organisms. But what happened in the past? The earth drills produced by the rovers showed that once this planet had all the conditions to become “habitable”. But why is our neighbor in the solar system unlucky like the Earth? And in this regard, scientists have a plausible answer.
Since mankind invented the telescope, this mysterious planet has not ceased to excite human imagination. R. Bradbury, A. Tolstoy and other writers composed works about the "Martians." The channels of rivers, seas and oceans, seen when approaching on the surface of the Red Planet, it would seem, with all convincing proof that with such a presence of water, life simply must be. Only twenty years after the first satellite was sent into space, NASA launched a government program whose mission was to fly to Mars to find life there.
In 1976, two NASA spacecraft landed on the surface of a planet named after the god of war. The Vikings transmitted to Earth numerous photographs of lifeless brown-red deserts, as well as the results of analyzes of the atmosphere, soils and deeper rocks. Thus, it became clear why we see Mars as a flickering red disk. The predominant soil on the planet is iron oxide. Such "rust" is also found on Earth. What does this discovery have to do with the question of whether there is life on Mars? The most direct: such soils are formed in the presence of water and free oxygen and in warm climates.
But the chemical analysis of the atmosphere of the planet disappointed people. There was a catastrophic amount of free oxygen in it. If you answer the question of whether there is life on Mars, based on air indicators, the answer will be a definitive "no." But soils? Apparently, once oxygen was present here in the same quantities as on Earth. Its production requires plant life. And, most likely, it was once abundant on the Red Planet. This is evidenced by methane, also present in the Martian atmosphere.
Soil samples at the North and South poles of the planet made the hearts of researchers tremble. In ice caps, scientists have discovered a certain amount of classic water ice. Taking into account the channels of huge water arteries, as well as the fact that the Red Planet is farther from the Sun further than the Earth, so the climate is much colder there, we can say that there were conditions for the origin of bionics. This, of course, is not the answer to the question of whether there is life on Mars. But still this information gives some hope.
In 1984, an event happened that again made the broad masses interested in whether there is life on Mars. The fact is that in Antarctica they found a 2-pound meteorite that fell from this planet. In 1996, it was investigated and ... found in it the remains of petrified primitive bacteria. The age of these microorganisms is three billion years. Despite the skepticism of many scientists, this find allows us to hope that there was still life on our closest neighbor planet. But she died as a result of attacks of giant asteroids.