• Question: do you think there is life on Mars

    Asked by ledw to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Steven Gardner

      Steven Gardner answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      I hope so, but probably not. Mars is really cold and there’s not much that life could use to live like they do on Earth. The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, there’s a lot less sunlight and what little water there is is in the form of ice. Prospects look bleak, but you never know till you look!

    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      I’m a bit more optimistic than Steve – in every extreme environment on Earth, where scientists thought they’d never find anything alive, they’ve found life. These are called extremophiles (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/extremophile.html ) …

      Given that it’s becoming more and more certain that Mars had (lots of) water on its surface in the past and we know it was much warmer, I think it’s possible that life evolved there and that there are still some (very) hardy bacteria or similar organisms clinging on to life – perhaps buried deep within rocks, or several metres under the surface… But we’d need to send a lot more sophisticated (and heavy) machinery to Mars to find it!

      Another place scientists think there might be life is Europa – it’s one of Jupiter’s moons and they are almost sure there’s a huge water ocean underneath a thick layer of surface ice that might have life in it….

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