The search for life beyond Earth is a core motivation of many missions to explore the Red Planet and in this new video, a NASA scientist takes a close look at the question of whether there is life on Mars.
There are a number of NASA missions that are looking for signs of life on Mars. One of the primary missions is the landing of the rovers Perseverance on the Martian surface in 2021. There are rocks from the Jezero Crater that have been collected by the latter.
Heather Graham, an Astrobiologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said, "We're just now getting instruments onto the Martian surface that can help us understand these potentially habitable places and we can ask deeper questions about the potential for habitability in those rockcores For a long time, we have been looking for life on Mars.
There are puddles of salty water on the Red Planet.
Graham's research has focused on the development of tools and techniques that can help us find evidence of living systems that are different from life on Earth.
Scientists need detection methods that suppose a common heritage with life on Earth as they investigate Mars and other solar system planets for signs of life. Scientists could use these methods to understand life deep within the Earth, where life could be very different than it is at the surface of the planet, because of following different evolutionary lines for billions of years.
There are lots of evidence that Mars could have supported life in the past. There is a lot of evidence that says there was a huge ocean on Mars.
One of the most important lines of evidence suggests that Mars once had enough water to support life.
NASA chose the Jezero crater as the landing area for the Perseverance rover because it was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river Delta.
The river channels in Jezero spilled over the crater walls and created a lake filled with clay minerals from the surrounding area. There could be signs of life in the lakebed or shoreline. The samples of Mars rock and soil were collected by Perseverance.
Life on the planet's surface is protected by our magnetic field, which stops harmful radiation from stripping away the atmosphere. It is thought that Mars lost its water around 4 billion years ago. There was nothing that could be done to prevent Mars' water from being lost to space. The existence of life at the surface of Mars was not feasible due to the radiation.
Graham thinks that if life still exists on Mars it would be underneath the planet's outer layers. Protection from harmful solar radiation would be provided by layers of rock and soil in a subterranean dwelling.
There are some places that are possible to live in. Graham said that there are places underground that could have fluids in them or organisms that could live, and they would be protected from the radiation that's so harmful on the surface. Is there anything left on Mars? We haven't found anything yet, but there's still a lot of Mars to explore.
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