Is there life on Mars? That’s a question that scientists have been trying to answer for decades now, as various spacecraft have wandered the surface of the Red Planet in search of any telltale signs it could exist. Unfortunately, NASA’s search for life on Mars has come up empty thus far, but that doesn’t mean the space agency is giving up.
While we have come close to finding signs of life on Mars, including even finding the building blocks of life on Mars, there’s just little chance that there is any life currently living on the surface of the planet. In a new video released on its YouTube channel, NASA scientist Heather Graham breaks down exactly why NASA’s hunt for life on Mars has come up so short.
According to Graham, and everything NASA has discovered so far, signs of life on Mars could very well have been possible in the past. However, in the planet’s current state, life on the surface is less likely than ever. But, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a chance. In fact, NASA has said it believes we need to dig deeper to find signs of life on the Red Planet.
That’s because the subsurface areas of the planet are more shielded from the dangerous radiation that makes it through Mars’ very thin atmosphere. But NASA’s hunt for life on Mars has left many with a lot of confusing results. While we’re awaiting the space agency’s Mars sample return mission, we’ve even seen concerns that evidence of life on Mars could be fake.
But that possibility isn’t stopping Perseverance and other spacecraft already exploring the planet from looking deeper. In fact, NASA has a manned mission to Mars planned for the future, which could hopefully shed even more light on the possibility of life existing on the Red Planet, even if it isn’t on the surface.
While we haven’t directly found evidence of life on Mars yet, NASA has discovered possible signs of ancient life on the planet using its Curiosity rover.
