Mars Rover Investigates Possibility of Ancient Microbial Life

Riding with Robots writes "The robotic geologist Spirit, now scurrying to reach a safe haven before the harsh Martian winter sets in, has found signs that explorers say point to hot springs or fumaroles in the Red Planet's distant past. That possibility is not only interesting geologically, but potentially biologically, since those kinds of environments on Earth teem with microbial life. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Opportunity continues its descent into a deep crater, where it has found other clues about the ancient waters of Mars."

Comments

Microbial life on Mars

[NJ Hewitt]

It's very likely there is life on Mars, but not necessarily native Martian life. Given that we've found lots of Martian meteorites on Earth, a lot of Earth rocks must have made it to Mars - and living organisms pervade the upper crust of our planet.

Re:Microbial life on Mars

[MtViewGuy]

I still think Mars may still have microbial life--but you have to dig under the surface at least about 1,000 mm to find them. They're living off water trapped in the deeper Martian soil. We'll find out more when the Mars Science Laboratory rover arrives in 2010.

Re:Microbial life on Mars

[Ihlosi]

It's very likely there is life on Mars, but not necessarily native Martian life. Given that we've found lots of Martian meteorites on Earth, a lot of Earth rocks must have made it to Mars - and living organisms pervade the upper crust of our planet.

Given that Mars was hospitable to life earlier than Earth was, life on Earth might even have started on Mars.

Also, it's probably easier for meteorites to travel inward than outward in the solar system (due to the sun's gravity well). We've found lots of Martian meteorites on Earth, by how many Venusian meteorites ?