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Some scientists are claiming that evidence has already been found showing that life is, or once lived, on Mars, the closest planet to Earth.
The British daily Telegraph reported on the 4th (local time) that as a result of scientists analyzing photos taken by NASA’s Mars rovers, they found traces of life present or having existed in the past.
Starting with ‘Viking 1’ in 1976, NASA sent several probes to Mars, and currently, two rovers such as ‘Curiosity’ and ‘Perseverance’ are active.
Some scientists believe that fossilized sponges, corals, insect eggs, algae, fungi, moss, shrimps, crabs, sea spiders, scorpions, living cyanobacteria, and even translucent millipedes are among the objects photographed. watching.
There are also claims that it is too early to determine the truth of these claims, but there is a possibility that they will prove to be evidence showing that life lived on Mars a long time ago.
However, it is difficult to determine whether life exists on Mars at present. It seems that proof itself will be impossible until the manned Mars exploration plan is implemented and humans set foot on Mars or until samples of materials taken from Mars are sent to Earth and analyzed.
Some researchers, who claim to have evidence of life on Mars, published four peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals last month.
Dr. Rudolph Shield of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, on behalf of the researchers who produced the paper, said, “There are pictures showing fungi growing in the ground, growing in size and increasing in number. These pictures were taken sequentially.” explained.
Dr. Shield also added, “We have published photos that show that cyanobacteria are growing,” adding, “Some specimens seemed to be in the hole, but two days later there are photos that appear to be outside the hole.”
The possibility of life on Mars has been raised since oxygen was detected in the Martian atmosphere in the 1950s. Many scientists have speculated that this oxygen may have been produced by photosynthesis.
Specimens resembling algae or cyanobacteria were first observed during NASA’s ‘Viking’ mission in the 1970s. Evidence of possible traces of life, such as methane gas, was also observed.
The Perseverance rover is digging in a place called ‘Jejiro Crater’, which is believed to have been a lake in the past, and is scheduled to send samples to Earth in 2033.
