Scientists say there may be life underground on Mars

The year 2020 is memorable in human history not only for the COVID-19 pandemic, but also for the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

In mid-September, astronomers said that life could survive high in the atmosphere of the  planet Venus .

An international team of astronomers from the  University of Cardiff, Wales , has announced the discovery of phosphine gas in the planet’s high clouds, a molecule that is also produced on Earth by microbes that live in similar oxygen-free environments.

As if that wasn’t surprising enough, days later a group of Russian astronomers announced that they had clear images of fossils of living alien microorganisms found in a meteorite that came from an  exoplanet  outside our solar system, life that existed even before our own. emerge solar system.

But now we have a new chapter in the imminent discovery of extraterrestrial life, be it microbial, animal or other intelligent being.

Scientists at the  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics  and the  Florida Institute of Technology  say they’ve figured out how to determine if there’s life deep inside Mars, the moon and other rocky objects in the universe.

Life inside Mars?

While scientists generally focus their search for life in the water, on the surface and in the atmosphere of space objects, the research team from the  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA)  and the Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech) suggests that the lack of Surface water does not preclude the possibility of life elsewhere on a rocky object, such as underground.

We examine whether the right conditions for life could exist deep below the surface of rocky objects like the Moon or Mars, and how scientists can look for traces of past subterranean life on these objects.”

explains lead author Dr. Lingam of the study published in  the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

We know this quest will be technically challenging, but not impossible.”

One of the researchers’ problems was to determine the possibility of the existence of water where, apparently, it does not exist.

Surface water requires an atmosphere to maintain a finite pressure, without which liquid water cannot exist.”

adds Dr. Lingam.

However, water can move to deeper areas. For example, Mars currently does not have ancient bodies of water on the surface, but it is known to have underground lakes.”

The study looks at the  “thickness”  of the subsurface region of nearby rocky objects where, in principle, water and life could exist.

In addition, the question is being studied whether the high pressure in them can completely rule out the existence of life. According to  Dr. Avi Loeb , director of the Institute for Astronomy  at Harvard University , probably not.

Both the Moon and Mars lack an atmosphere that allows liquid water to exist on their surface, but warmer, pressurized regions below the surface could allow the chemistry of life to exist in liquid water.”

explains Dr. Loeb.

As for the search for subterranean life on the Moon and Mars, the researchers say it won’t be easy.

We need equipment that has not yet been used on any of our neighboring space bodies,”

adds Dr. Loeb.

We need to be able to drill tens of kilometers below the surface of Mars, and without geological activity exposing these deep layers, we won’t be able to explore them.”

However, the problems do not mean that finding life in the subsurface biosphere of a rocky body will be impossible even in the near future.

Drilling might be possible in the context  of Artemis’ program  to establish a sustainable base on the Moon by 2024. You can imagine robots and heavy equipment drilling deep beneath the Moon’s surface in search of life, just as we are looking for oil on Earth. Earth”,

concludes Loeb, adding that if future missions to Mars and the Moon discover subterranean life, the same principles for finding it could be applied to other missions.

Imminent First Extraterrestrial Contact?

The truth is, we don’t really know what’s going on in the astronomical community. Everything seems to indicate that we are facing a space race in the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

Curiosity (lit. “curiosity”) is a space rover designed to explore Gale Crater on Mars as part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, operated by NASA.

Remember that before all these announcements, several astronomers claimed that  Saturn’s moon, Enceladus , is one of the potential candidates where life could thrive within the solar system.

Scientists made this theory after detecting the presence of methane in ice columns that rise from the interior of the moon.

As the search for extraterrestrial life takes on new dimensions, many believe that first extraterrestrial contact could soon occur.

doctor Jim Green , director of  NASA’s Planetary Science Division , said that alien living beings, likely on Mars, will soon be discovered.

According with the doctor. Green, chances are high that the 2020 Mars Rover will discover extraterrestrial life on the red planet. But he also claimed that humans are not sufficiently prepared to accept extraterrestrial existence.

Since the end of 2019 we are guaranteeing that 2020 will be the year of the extraterrestrial revelation. But just like what happened to us at the time with the year-long warnings of  the coronavirus pandemic , we’re dealing with tabloids.

Later, other more recognized media echo and are considered to spread the truth, while what they do is simply seize the moment.

Apart from this small observation, we can only wait for the moment of the so-called  “Great Revelation” .

What do you, dear reader, think about extraterrestrial life inside Mars?

Is this more evidence that we are at the door of the “Great Revelation”?