The human race is fascinated with the idea of extraterrestrial life. Our movies, novels, music, comic books, etc., all of our cultural artwork reflects that we grapple with understanding the universe and whether or not there is intelligent life besides us out there.
Specifically, we obsess over “Martians,” or the idea of finding life on Mars.
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NASA has just made an announcement that reveals a major impact on our continued search for life on the red planet.
A spokesman for NASA has made a statement on behalf of the space exploration agency announcing, “It’s possible microbial life could have existed at the surface early in Mars’ history. As the planet cooled off and dried up, any life could have been driven underground or forced into rare surface oases.”
What this means is, NASA’s hypothesis is that there might be microbial alien life living in oceans on Mars, underneath the planet’s surface.
We’ve got rovers on Mars and spacecraft that orbit it…but with this new tech, we may soon have a Martian airplane! https://t.co/2PDhPQazMB pic.twitter.com/0AVpgFoAfl
— NASA (@NASA) March 31, 2017
They did a study on what could have stripped the planet’s surface of its atmosphere during the early times of our solar system, and they’ve mostly concluded that it was strong solar winds which caused Mars‘ atmosphere to be stripped of noble gas argon and carbon dioxide (CO2).
Consequently, NASA believes this is what caused Mars’ environment to be so inhospitable to supporting oceans.
MAVEN Program Scientist Elsayed Talaat, who works at NASA’s Washington Headquarters said: “This discovery is a significant step toward unraveling the mystery of Mars’ past environments. In a broader context, this information teaches us about the processes that can change a planet’s habitability over time.”
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He also spoke about their findings that the solar winds stripped the planet of its noble gas argon and carbon dioxide, saying, “CO2 is of interest because it is the major constituent of Mars’ atmosphere and because it’s an efficient greenhouse gas that can retain heat and warm the planet.”
So for now, at least, we can rest confidently that there are no little green men, or little giant-headed men with ray guns, or small, furry, English-speaking creatures who will sleep on your couch and eat your cat residing on the surface of Mars.
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[H/T: Daily Star]
