Remember all the fiction of life on Mars? The hysteria about being invaded by aliens from Mars? The stereotypical alien is still far from reality, but the Mars Global Surveyor has made life on Mars no so far fetched anymore. The Surveyor was launched in 1996 and by late 2000, it had sent about 80,000 images of the Martian terrain back to Earth. These are not the poor resolution images of the Mariner or Viking missions. The Surveyor is orbiting Mars and sending back images with resolution hundreds of times greater than previous missions. These images have turned the scientific world upside-down... and they're making religious followers very nervous too!
Layered Sedimentary Outcrops - NASA/JPL/MSSS [1]
(The gullies exhibit meandering channels with fan-shaped aprons of debris located downslope. The gullies are considered to have been formed by erosion--both from a fluid (such as water) running downslope, and by slumping and landsliding processes driven by the force of gravity. )
Evidence of vast quantities of water and ice are clear in hundreds of locations on the red planet. Erosional patterns and canyon carving are very similar to what we see on Earth. In fact, Mars is not at all like the Moon which has been a long held view. The images sent back from Surveyor show detailed stratographic deposits like we find on Earth in ancient lake basins. It was thought that Mars couldn't have water in liquid form because of its extreme temperatures. The summit of Olympus Mons has a daily high of 40 F and a low of minus 165 F. The erosional patterns and mud flows are missing something common on the Mars terrain... meteor impacts. From this, we can deduce that the erosion and sedimentary deposits occurred in recent times with respect to Mars' geologic history. It's possible that the Mars environment was recently very different than it is today. Was it much warmer? There are many questions to be answered on Mars, but it certainly seems that Mars once had flowing water to make such deposits of sediment.
Erosion in Meteor Impact Craters - NASA/JPL/MSSS [1]
(Pictures show gullies on walls of two different craters. Picture at right is one of the highest-resolution images obtained from Mars. Its resolution is 1.5 meters (5 feet) per pixel--objects the size of school buses can be resolved in the full size image. The gullies in these craters originate at a specific layer and may have formed by release of groundwater to the martian surface in geologically recent times.)
What does this mean? In very extreme environments that existed on Earth in its early history, life was present. It was mainly algae and microscopic organisms, but it was life. And again, when the Permian extinction occurred (thought to be the result of a catastrophic event like an asteroid or comet), most life forms were eliminated. Yet, algae, stromatalites and microscopic organisms survived and life evolved once again.Though it's a scientific stretch to assume that physics and the environment required to sustain life on Earth should also apply to Mars, let's allow ourselves that freedom for a moment. Mars has ice at its poles and shows signs of some form of liquid capable of generating erosional patterns like we see on Earth. If we assume that is water, the possibility of life on Mars is no longer as crazy as it once seemed. Mars does have the closest environment to Earth in our solar system. We can observe life which thrives on Earth in very harsh conditions. They are known as "extremophiles" and include life ranging from marine creatures living at the mouths of volcanic vents miles below the surface of the ocean to microscopic organisms flourishing in aquatic caves in the brackish interval (part salt water, part fresh water). In 1996, a meteorite believed to be from Mars appeared to have signs of microbial life. [A Mars meteorite is believed to be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact on the Mars surface which ejects Mars material out of the gravitational pull of the planet.]
If you were to ask us, "Does life exist on Mars?", we would still have to answer "No" (being the skeptics that we are) because we don't believe sufficient evidence exists to say that it does. However, couldn't extremophiles exist on another planet? We are certainly open to that possibility and the images of the Surveyor have certainly opened our eyes. They seem to indicate that the atmosphere on Mars could have been very different in recent geologic past. We know from our Permian extinction and our asteroid impact causing the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction that life can be drastically altered by catastrophic events. Mars has many meteorite impact craters including one we call the Hellas Basin where we know a meteorite estimated at a hundred miles in diameter collided with the planet. This would cause global devastation. Could it be that Mars is experiencing a period like our Permian or K-T extinctions? Entirely possible. Could it be that life currently exists on Mars like our algae, stromatalites and microscopic extremophiles? Again, entirely possible.
Why do we bring this up on the Ethical Atheist? Because it presents another scientific anomaly for religion to explain away. According to the Scripture, Earth is unique and God create Adam and Eve here. There is no other life in the Universe. We have no doubt that if life is finally observed on Mars, that religions we find a way to jump this hurdle too. Just as they have jumped the hurdles of a revolving round earth or other stars with their own planets or the Milky Way (a migration of lost souls). Be ready for the modification of beliefs and the twisting of Scripture because it will surely come... it always does.
Streaked Martian surface (dark lines are caused by removal of dust) |
Dust devil in action (note dark trail and dust plume) |
Dust devil and its shadow |
1. Malin
Space Science Systems (MSSS), images from NASA/JPL/MSSS used with permission
2. Mars
Exploration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA