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Was there life on Mars?

Scientists continue to investigate whether Mars has ever supported life. Aspects of Mars that make it less hospitable for life are that it is too cold (being too far from the Sun), and has a very thin atmosphere (in part due to its weaker gravity). This would make the planet struggle to maintain liquefied water, which is a necessity for life on earth. In addition, unlike earth, the planet lacks a magnetosphere, without which delicate compounds would be destroyed by solar radiation.

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Agree
Experts In Astronomy


Vittorio Formisano    Astronomer
Agree
I believe there is extremely high probability that microbial subsurface life exists on Mars.
02 May 2005    Source


Disagree
Experts In Astronomy


Andrew Knoll    Astronomy Professor
Mostly Disagree
Our sense has been that while Mars is a lousy environment for supporting life today, long ago it might have more closely resembled Earth, but this result suggests quite strongly that even as long as four billion years ago, the surface of Mars would have been challenging for life. No matter how far back we peer into Mars' history, we may never see a point at which the planet really looked like Earth.
29 May 2008    Source



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