The question: “Is there, or has there ever been, life on Mars?” has been asked for centuries. .Space probes were sent to Mars to try to answer the question, but it might require getting humans to Mars to know for sure..Now, a newly released study says, yes, there were primitive life forms thriving on the Red Planet when its once moist and warm climate was conducive to life, right around the same time prehistoric life forms were developing in Earth’s oceans. But the depletion of the planet’s hydrogen may have caused ‘climate change’ and an Ice Age that led to their extinction.. Steven Guilbeault .Sounds like a mission for climate warriors, Steven Guilbeault Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and Greta Thunberg, a junior climate activist from Sweden who, according to Flinty.com, amassed a $1-million fortune for saying “how dare you.”.The study, published in the scientific journal Nature and authoured by Sorbonne University post-doctoral researcher Boris Sauterey, says Mars’ microorganisms were likely flourishing just under its crust, gobbling up the hydrogen in its atmosphere, around 3.7 billion years ago..“The ingredients of life are everywhere in the universe,” Sauterey told Space.com. “So, it’s possible life appears regularly in the universe. But the inability of life to maintain habitable conditions on the surface of the planet makes it go extinct very fast.”.While temperatures on Mars could have been between 14 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit, they may have plummeted by about 400 degrees when the planet’s once dense atmosphere was depleted of the greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide and hydrogen that it relied on to warm the planet, the study says..“The increasingly inhospitable climate would have caused the early Martian life forms to recede deeper into the crust of the planet to survive over a period of hundreds of millions of years,” says Sauterey..However, Thunberg, Kerry, Guilbeault, and possibly Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, said greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and hydrogen in Earth’s atmosphere are responsible for potentially life-ending climate change.. John Kerry .Too little on Mars? Too much on Earth?.During the same period, microbes on Earth some 68 million miles away may have helped foster a warmer climate that supports complex life because our planet is dominated by nitrogen, says Sauterey..“On ancient Mars, hydrogen was a very potent warming gas because of something we call the collision-induced absorption effect where molecules of carbon dioxide and hydrogen interact with each other.”. GondekCalgary's Mayor Jyoti Gondek .“We don’t see that on Earth because our planet’s atmosphere is not as rich in carbon dioxide as that of Mars used to be. So, the microbes essentially replaced a more potent warming gas, hydrogen, with a less potent warming gas, methane, which would have had a net cooling effect.”.Researchers said the findings support the theory microbial life may still be present deep in the Martian crust and may have survived near the surface of the planet’s three warmest regions, Hellas Planita, Isidis Planitia and Jezero Crater, once the site of a lake system where NASA’s Mars Preservation rover is currently collecting rocks..Last week, the rover gathered samples that indicated signs of microbial life were once present in Jezero Crater, according to NASA.. Greta ThunbergSwedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg .“The places on the planet where those microbes would have been closest to the surface would have been the warmest regions,” says Sautery..“And the warmest places are usually the deepest places. At the bottom of these craters and valleys, the climate is much warmer than on the rest of the surface, and that’s why it would be much easier to search there for evidence of these life forms.”.With three areas of interest on Mars, it’s convenient we have Thunberg, Kerry and Guilbeault on Earth who could travel to Mars to give the investigations a human touch..Certainly, they all have experience with travel: Thunberg purportedly boating across the ocean; Kerry putting around 200,000 miles per year on his private jet’s engines and; Guilbeault traveling up the CN Tower in Toronto as a member of Greenpeace, an arresting moment in his life..Perhaps Elon Musk could prepare one of his SpaceX craft to rocket them to Mars. .Ever wonder if the gas tanks on those rockets hold enough for a round trip?
