This discovery is of great significance to the team of scientists at NASA since it adds further evidence to the theories that ancient Mars was habitable for life as we know it. We know that Nitrogen is essential for all known forms of life on Earth. Interestingly, on Earth, 90% of all methane in the atmosphere is produced by living organisms. In addition to traces of methane, the rover’s instruments also detected biologically useful nitrogen. This indicates that there is an additional source of methane of unknown origin. These show that the base values are lower than thought, just 0.7 parts per billion in volume (ppmv), but data has also shown that the values increased significantly six times and on some occasions even exceeding seven ppmv, 10 times higher. Curiosity registered surges of methane gas levels using the SAM instrument. For example, NASA’s Curiosity Rover has registered traces of methane on the Red Planet. Moreover, previous studies have identified several anomalies on the red planet. The new study claims that gigantic lakes could have formed within these lava-filled basins.
This ideal mixture created ideal temperature ranges, water pressure and nutrients and life as we know it could have made it on Mars. The study performed by scientists from the Planetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Arizona suggest that basins on Mars could have been covered with lava and water over the course of hundreds of millions of years. Basins covered in lava and water could have sustained the necessary conditions for microbes to survive. Interestingly, a recent study has even concluded that in the distant past Mars’ shallow lakes may have once sustained life. Located just on the border of the ‘habitable zone’ of our star, it is very likely that Mars had just enough time and the perfect conditions to support life and allow it to develop to a ‘sophisticated’ stage. Today we are certain that Mars was a very similar planet to Earth in the distant past when the red planet had an atmosphere eerily similar to that of Earth with oceans and rivers that once covered the Martian surface creating a ‘perfect’ environment for life as we know it to flourish.īut what about intelligent life? Well, researchers have concluded over the past couple of years that Mars is probably the most similar planet to Earth in our solar system. The truth is that our views on Mars have drastically changed over the past couple of decades. Whether or not Mars could have supported life in the distant past is a question that could soon be answered. Carl Sagan noted so succinctly in “ Cosmos“: “The first indication of intelligent life on Earth lies in the geometric regularity of its constructions…” There are numerous images taken on Mars which depict what appear to be buried artificial structures on the Surface of Mars.
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