NASA: If Life Existed On Mars, It Was Probably Underground (PHOTOS)

A new study from NASA postulates that if life ever existed on Mars, it was probably underground.

Ever since clay minerals were discovered on Mars in 2005, scientists have thought warm and wet conditions that could have supported life may have existed, according to NASA. That's because clay is formed when water and rock interact with one another.

SEE SLIDESHOW BELOW FOR INFRARED IMAGES

But researchers analyzing orbiter data from over 350 areas of the planet's surface have found that the type of clay that's formed underground is abundant on Mars, while the type of clay that's formed above the surface is rare.

And conditions on Mars aren't especially conducive to water above the planet's surface.

From Universe Today:

But there's a problem with Mars' atmosphere - it is not thick enough now for water to be retained on Mars' surface, and there is no scientific consensus that it was ever thick enough in the past to have allowed water to remain on the surface.

According to NASA, the study, which is published in the current issue of the journal Nature, backs up a hypothesis that warm water was present only on the planet's surface for geologically short periods of time.

But don't worry -- this doesn't rule out the possibility of life on the red planet.

"If surface habitats were short-term, that doesn't mean we should be glum about prospects for life on Mars, but it says something about what type of environment we might want to look in," Bethany Ehlmann, the lead author of the paper and a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "The most stable Mars habitats over long durations appear to have been in the subsurface. On Earth, underground geothermal environments have active ecosystems."

But we can't rule anything out. Space.com notes that just because the water on the surface was only present for a short time doesn't mean it couldn't have been habitable.

NASA's Curiosity rover, a mobile science lab that will continue to study whether or not there was life on the red planet, is set to launch on November 25.

The rover vehicle Opportunity, which is currently operating on the surface of the red planet, has sent back some stunning pictures. Last month, NASA released a video composed of images taken during the Opportunity's three-year trek.

ABC News reported in August that NASA has been looking for evidence of water on Mars for 15 years.

LOOK: Clay Minerals in Craters and Escarpments on Mars:

Comments

[cosmicdart]

09:21 AM on 12/11/2011

We must be careful cuz there might be a robot hyper-space transmitting sentinel on Mars placed there by big hungry reptilian aliens from our nearest star system. Our Mars rover might set it off alerting these big bad aliens to pay attention to us by visiting us with a large invasion force. What if they want to harvest us for food? Seven billion people represent a lot of food for starving aliens. They would turn us into yummy chocolate flavored dehydrated food pellets to ship back to their home planet.

[doctorzap]

12:59 PM on 11/08/2011

To those talking about species "God", you may not be far from wrong here. But the name of that species may very well have been Annunaki.

The Father of the three Western religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all regard Abraham as the founding Father. But let's go back a little further, and we see that in the Biblical story, Abraham was born and raised in Ur. The time is roughly at the end of the Old Kingdoms (Sumeria, Egypt, Pakistan/India), which were destroyed by environmental changes brought about by (possibly) an extraterrestrial impact(s).

The patron god of Ur was Nanna (also known as 'Sin'). This would have been the god of Abraham's father, Terah. But Nanna was the offspring of Enlil, leader of the Sumerian pantheon of gods. I would argue that it was Enlil who came to Abram and ordered him to move himself and his followers to Canaan, where he would make of them a great nation.

http://www.claudemariottini.com/user/Article-%20Ur%20and%20Haran.pdf

Thus, the identity of God, known as Yahweh by the Hebrews and El by the Canaanites, would appear consistent with the biblical story.

[bellsblu2]

01:26 PM on 11/08/2011

I am of the opinion that once you advance to the point of considering "GOD" a species, and an alien, the religious connotations of "the faithful become irrelevant.

[doctorzap]

03:15 PM on 11/08/2011

Religions, I would argue, are not as much about beliefs as they are about politics and political power. That's how they were used by the Sumerians and Egyptians, and that's pretty much how they are being used today. Certainly, today's far right Regressives know how to do this for effective PR, even in the 21st Century, when because what we have learned through science, you might think that religious belief systems would be starting to fall out of favor. Instead, they seem more potent than ever.

[TheCycad]

09:44 AM on 11/08/2011

nanu nanu

[Joey Webb1238]

01:21 PM on 11/08/2011

That's ork dude, not Mars :-)

[TheCycad]

02:14 PM on 11/08/2011

whoops.

I don't want to offend any martians out there.

[CatcherOfLies]

09:17 AM on 11/08/2011

It would appear to me that before we spend money to find life on Mars, we need to channel this money into digging around and finding life on Capitol Hill.

[Ameri Bunker]

04:03 AM on 11/08/2011

Here is PROOF that life exists on Mars. The really, really cool thing about this video is anyone can do the same thing. It's NASA footage, just zoomed in. That's all you do to see this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxVliFAhGdY

(feel free to fan me)

[meeljefe]

02:42 AM on 11/08/2011

"But don't worry -- this doesn't rule out the possibility of life on the red planet."

"Just because you can't see god doesn't mean he dosen't exist - you got to have faith."

[TheCycad]

09:41 AM on 11/08/2011

that's nice... but the search for life is not based on faith. It is based on gathering and analyzing empirical data.

That is the only way we will ever know if there IS life (of course, we will never know 100% that there is not).

[bellsblu2]

11:43 AM on 11/08/2011

Hmmmm... Let's think about this a second.....God isn't from Planet Earth, and WE are...

From OUR perspective, anything not from planet Earth is an extra-terrestrial...

By an extension of THAT logic, GOD is an extra-terrestrial...

From that point on, we're talking about an alien categorized as species "GOD".

[Lo Chiaro]

09:18 PM on 11/07/2011

You know, the wingnuts believe that god made the entire universe just for humans.

To that I say, "How soon can we get to Mars and start digging?"

[Ioan Lightoller]

10:57 PM on 11/07/2011

Fanned and faved. The human supremacist arrogance is amazing. I hope we get to Mars and can start digging. I suspect we shall find some very interesting things when we do.

[Rich Cash]

06:35 AM on 11/08/2011

Not trying to argue, but who are the "wingnuts"? Many scientists believe in some form of higher power, and many scientists (both athiests and believers) believe we are the only sentient species in the universe. I, for one, would love to prove them wrong, but I don't think they're "wingnuts" just because they don't have the same beliefs that I do.

[bellsblu2]

11:59 AM on 11/08/2011

I'll try to keep this fact based and as simple as possible,

Time is a construct of mass.

Each planet is a gravity well effecting local time.

All objects within the sphere of human comprehension are in constant motion, with relative velocities, headed away from initial "big bang".

So, given our limited understanding of what qualifies as "life" and the influence of time, generated by the mass within OUR near space system (as well as neighboring systems), it is highly possible that life as we DON'T recognize it exists, or has come into existence, peaked and expired within not so near systems.

Species "GOD" could evolve and expire in any number of instances under those circumstances given the mass generated time scales involved.

((((Phew)))).

[BudMax77]

09:16 PM on 11/07/2011

.....so, this Martian frog, a snake, and a crustaceon crawl up on a sand bar, and the resident clam says: "What is this, a joke?"

[Rich Cash]

06:38 AM on 11/08/2011

ROFLMAO! Fanned and faved, Bud!

[DarkTruths]

08:04 PM on 11/07/2011

With all that's wrong with our planet, they spend money on a space program which does nothing for us, helps us in no way (except for spying), has not produced anything that couldn't have been done here and ...forget Mars, is there intelligent life on Earth?

[6531WilliamsG]

06:01 AM on 11/08/2011

Gps for starters

[6531WilliamsG]

06:04 AM on 11/08/2011

http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home.html but that's nothing I suppose, far better to spend it on nonstop wars or perhaps the drug on war, it's been very successful much like prohibition was.

[raanghaus]

07:22 PM on 11/07/2011

i hope they dont find marvin...

[SarcasticFringehead]

06:51 PM on 11/07/2011

David Bowie had an opinion about this topic years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_zkDiO9_Tg&feature=related

"It's on Americas tortured brow, that Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow."

[Chathura Gunarathana]

05:46 PM on 11/07/2011

We should start going to Mars sooner than later. It is about time humans start colonizing our solar system and start developing propulsion technology for beyond our solar system.
http://theuniverse.biz

[DarkTruths]

08:04 PM on 11/07/2011

Yeah, that'll happen. Shouldn't you be at ComiCon?

[Ioan Lightoller]

08:59 PM on 11/07/2011

If there'd been a majority like you back in the 60s, we would never have made it to the moon. I think we should have a go at manned missions to Mars. Oh and I do not read comics or attend comics or sci-fi conventions.

[bellsblu2]

05:15 PM on 11/07/2011

Hmmm.. So... Why is it that we need to find life on Mars, again?

Seems to me, we won't be happy until we find something, and bring it back, and it wipes us all out.

I'm not against knowledge, and I certainly would like us to explore... But, let's examine the record:..

The new world....Manhatten for a few buck and trinkets,,,
The west...(Indians culture anyone?)
The oceans: Mass exploitation
The discovery of nuclear fusion: Immediate war weapon
The planet Earth: Being killed of by humans.
Computers and the digital age: Privacy disappears, attempts to superimpose the "age of terror" over it.
The list goes over the horizon.

I say, let's study it, and leave it where we find it if/when we find it.

Humans have not nearly evolved enough to be trusted with ANYTHING more important than what we've already developed... (and we can't be trusted with what we already have)

[knotsonorml]

06:45 PM on 11/07/2011

It's only through science and exploration that humankind can continue to proliferate. As bad at it as we are, we were born to look over the next horizon. It's what we do. Besides, sooner or later we will need to relocate from this neighborhood. We've already fouled this planet. Need to find another.....

[Ioan Lightoller]

09:02 PM on 11/07/2011

Fanned and faved. It is time that we consider a home away from home, so to speak. As you note we have fouled and over populated this planet. If we manage to colonize Mars, I hope that we manage to do better than we have on earth.

[CoffeeOnIce]

04:58 PM on 11/07/2011

Life used to exist on Mars, until Ron Paul relocated to Texas.

[Genesis2012]

05:33 PM on 11/07/2011

Obama, moved there. White flight?

[MmeFlutterbye]

04:56 PM on 11/07/2011

I have a large planter in my garden. I put it there about ten years ago. Over the years it has sunk lower and lower into the soil so that now only a three-inch rim shows above ground. The unprotected pyramids a thousand years old in the Yucatan are just hills with vegetation growing on them. There are other examples, and It seems to me that the earth claims things eventually. We are eagerly ruining our planet by poisoning the soil and air and depleting it of its resources. After millions of years, when there is no life here, everything will be buried. The earth could be arid and our skyscrapers crumbled to sand. Maybe ... only maybe ... intelligent life will discover this speck of dust. Maybe they will haul out the shovels and start digging. Maybe they'll find evidence that we once existed ... maybe not. Could be that Mars is us.