1. Mars has
Flowing Rivers of Water on it
Yesterday, NASA announced that Mars actually has
rivers of flowing water on
it.
What we once believed to be an
arid and rocky desert of a planet is actually seasonal, not
unlike our own planet Earth.
Lujendra Ojha, a planetary scientist at the Georgia
Institute of Technology, made the discovery by using images
from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
This raises a number of other questions, many of which are
brought up in the press conference below.
"Mars is not the dry, arid
planet that we thought of in the past… [and] liquid
water has been found on Mars."
James Green
NASA director of
planetary sciences
2. Mars Could
Have Had Extraterrestrial Life Living on it
"We are going to Mars, our
journey to Mars is a science led expedition right now,
but soon I hope we'll be sending humans to the red
planet to explore and science will lead the way.
And today's announcement of
a really fascinating result about current water on Mars
is one of the reasons why I feel it's even more
imperative that we send astrobiologists and planetary
scientists to Mars to explore the question of,
'Is there current life
on Mars?' "
John Grunsfeld
five time space flown
astronaut, Associate Administrator Head of NASA Science
Mission Directive
Obviously, with the announcement
that
there is water on Mars, the
possibility of life near the surface becomes ever more
plausible.
The press conference also goes
into more details about the atmosphere and condition of
Mars, and how the planet could have supported life in the
past. I will elaborate on this in the next section.
Another interesting fact is that the possibility of life in
the interior of Mars has always been quite high.
"The possibility of life in
the interior of Mars has always been very high. There's
certainly water somewhere in the crust of Mars… It's
very likely, I think, that there is life somewhere in
the crust of Mars."
Alfred McEwen
Principal Investigator,
HiRISE, University of Arizona (30:25)
3. Mars Was
Once a Planet Very Much Like Earth, with a Giant Ocean
"The more we observe Mars,
the more information we're getting that it really is a
fascinating planet, from the Curiosity Rover we now know
that Mars once was like a planet very much like Earth,
with long salty seas, with fresh water lakes, probably
with snow capped peaks and clouds and a water cycle just
like we're studying here on Earth…
Something has happened to
Mars, it lost its water."
John Grunsfeld
five time space flown
astronaut, Associate Administrator Head of NASA Science
Mission Directive
John Grunsfeld
also goes on to
discuss the high likelihood that Mars previously sustained
life, before whatever happened to the planet that lead to
its change in climate.
Scientists are still struggling
to work out what exactly that event or series of events may
have been.
"Mars is the planet most
like Earth… [and in the past,] Mars was a very different
planet, it had an extensive atmosphere, and in fact it
had what we believe was a huge ocean, perhaps as large
as two thirds the Northern Hemisphere.
And that ocean may have been
as much as a mile deep. So Mars indeed three billion
years ago had extensive water resources. But something
happened.
Mars suffered a major
climate change and lost its surface water."
James Green
NASA director of
planetary physics
As pointed out in the press
conference, this discovery is so exciting because it
suggests that Mars could possibly sustain life in the
present day.
This is not only due to the
presence of water; rovers have discovered that there is a
lot more humidity in the air than we once thought.
Indeed, the soils are moist,
hydrated, and full of water.
"Today's announcement is one
of the reasons why it's even more imperative that we
send astrobiologists and planetary scientists to Mars to
explore the question of is there current life on Mars."
Alfred McEwen
Principal Investigator,
HiRISE, University of Arizona (source)
4. Something
Happened to The Planet that Drastically Changed its Climate
As you can see from the two quotes in the above section by
John Grunsfeld and James Green (taken from the
press conference below), something happened to Mars that
drastically changed its environment.
It seems the climate altered
significantly, but what caused this change? Scientists at
NASA have yet to figure this out, but some interesting
theories have been proposed.
Given the fact that scientists
are almost certain that life once existed on Mars, and
without
question throughout the universe, is it really
that farfetched to assume that a race of intelligent beings
once inhabited Mars?
We already have statements from
a number of astronauts suggesting that intelligent
extraterrestrial life has already been discovered.
"There is abundant evidence that we are
being contacted, that civilizations have been monitoring
us for a very long time."
Brian O'Leary
Former NASA Astronaut and
Princeton Physics Professor
"I happen to be privileged enough to be
in on the fact that we have been visited on this planet,
and the UFO phenomenon is real…"
"Yes there have been crashed
craft, and bodies recovered… We are not alone in the
universe, they have been coming here for a long time."
Dr.
Edgar Mitchell
6th man to walk on the
Moon, Doctor of Science
It's not only a large and
growing number of NASA astronauts who share this belief,
it's also political, military, and academic personnel from
all over the world.
And then there are the thousands
of pages of
documents detailing UFOs
undertaking incredible aerial maneuvers.
