As Seeker recently reported, it is not difficult to contemplate a scenario where, at least at some point in Mars’ distant past, volcanic activity may have been widespread and a major factor in environmental changes concerning the subsurface, surface, and atmosphere of the planet. Mars is dotted with enormous volcanoes. Olympus Mons, which is the tallest planetary mountain yet discovered in the Solar System (only Rheasilvia on Asteroid Vesta might be taller), is three times the height of Mount Everest on Earth and is the crown jewel of the string of volcanoes that make the Tharsis ridge. Active volcanoes, which would have emitted gases such as carbon monoxide and sulfur into Mars’ early atmosphere, could have produced habitable conditions that may have sustained life.

Such conditions may have given rise to microbes, according to research published in Icarus. This could have been achieved via the volcanoes’ eruptions altering Mars’ atmosphere into a more anoxic covering, one that would have reflected lower oxygen levels and produced fewer oxygen-based reactions. Less oxygen may have contributed to the formation of amino acids, which are basic building blocks for proteins and, by extension, organic life.

From the paper: “These results imply that ancient Mars should have experienced periods with anoxic and reducing atmospheres even through the mid-Amazonian whenever volcanic outgassing was sustained at sufficient levels. Reducing anoxic conditions are potentially conducive to the synthesis of prebiotic organic compounds, such as amino acids, and are therefore relevant to the possibility of life on Mars.”

Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest known volcano in the Solar System. [Image by Stocktrek Images/Thinkstock/Getty Images]

Seeker reached out to Stephen Sholes, a Ph.D. candidate in earth and space sciences and astrobiology at the University of Washington and the lead author on the Mars paper, who elaborated by email on how the atmospheric conditions on ancient Mars could have been analogous to conditions that produced life on ancient Earth.

“This is important from an astrobiology standpoint because these reducing anoxic conditions have been hypothesized as being important to the origin of life on the early Earth.”

Sholes further explained that the research, by constructing a model of the volcanism, gives researchers quantitative data on just how the volcanic activity (and how much of it) was required to produce the anoxic levels. This is a departure from earlier research that simply dealt with volcanism as a geological aspect. Not only does his work indicate what it would take to reach said levels, but the research also looks at whether or not attaining the conditions is possible. Just as important: The research suggests how this can be detected.

Sholes pointed out that the research also was different in that his work searched for answers to the life on Mars question by proposing a connection with volcanic outgassing where most research connected the ancient volcanic activity with the warming of the planet to produce habitability.

“Yes, you need liquid water, but you also need appropriate conditions for life, and here we are finding that the volcanoes should have changed the atmosphere enough to be more conducive to forming complex bio-important molecules,” he said.

Today Mars has a thin atmosphere, but one where some astrobiologists have found may still be conducive to alien life. [Image by Bernhard Lelle/Thinkstock/Getty Images]

Sholes’ paper is the latest to suggest the viability of an atmosphere on Mars that could sustain at least microbial life. In fact, astrobiologists at the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville announced findings in January that microbes, if presently extant on Mars, could survive the extremely thin atmosphere that now envelopes the planet.

[Featured Image by Nostalgia for Infinity/Shutterstock]

TREE STUMP

Date of discovery: April 2017
Location of discovery: Mars
Source NASA photo: https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=1647ML0085250370700323C00_DXXX&s=1647.42118872689

Paranormal Crucible makes a hypothesis that this could be an ancient tree stump on Mars. Its a good assumption since NASA themselves said Mars was Earth-like when a solar explosion hit the planet, striping the atmosphere and oceans from its surface.
Scott C. Waring

Paranormal Crucible states: 
Intriguing object found by the curiosity rover, this time a possible tree stump. This object definitely looks out of place and in my opinion could be the petrified remnants of a Martian tree. Object is around 3 feet in height, and with numerous discoveries of plant and animal life on mars, it would be logical to assume, that a variety of tree either existed, or still exists on this enigmatic planet.

Here is an alien skull I found in a Mars photo. This skull has dark linens around the eye sockets, just as humans do. It has two eye sockets, just as humans do. Its nose and mouth area seem to be connected. There are two long bones on each side of the mouth area, which could have been part of the jaw area. Near the eye socket is a curved bone area on the side of its head, as some human skulls have. I have found many skulls on Mars and this one seems similar to a few of them.

I also found some other faces that may be petrified heads, or sculpted heads, its hard to tell. But for the skull above, its easy since the flesh has left the skull and left the eye, mouth cavities to prove its real. Evidence of a great war? Maybe, but it is 100% evidence that aliens lived and died on Mars long ago.

Now, if NASA would just do their job, maybe the public can learn about this.

Scott C. Waring

For years, many have theorized that it may be possible for Mars to host some form of life, or that the planet may have hosted life at some point in its past. And while some of these theories can head into the realms of science fiction, such as the possibility of a nuclear war that destroyed the Martian atmosphere, other theories have more basis in science. Earlier this week, the Daily Express wrote that an asteroid strike may have caused a mega-tsunami that would have resulted in a massive extinction event after it engulfed Mars in water.

The study in question came short of suggesting there may have been alien life in Mars, but new research from NASA based on findings from its MAVEN Spacecraft does hint at this.

In NASA’s official press release, the space agency explained that there may have been some forms of microbial life on Mars when it was still a young planet. But since our sun was still at a similarly young age, its ultraviolet radiation and solar winds were far more intense, thus resulting in much greater atmospheric loss on the Red Planet at this early stage in its life.

“It’s possible microbial life could have existed at the surface early in Mars’ history. As the planet cooled off and dried up, any life could have been driven underground or forced into rare surface oases.”

[Image by NASA]

Liquid water is considered to be one of the key features that would allow life to be hosted on a planet. But at the present, it isn’t stable on the Martian surface due to its cold and thin atmosphere. But there are other features on Mars, such as dry riverbeds and certain minerals, that suggest that the planet once had liquid water, and may have had a climate warm enough to allow that water to flow.

MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky and his colleagues by analyzing how much of two argon gas isotopes were present in the Martian atmosphere and on the planet’s surface, in an attempt to see how much of this noble gas was lost in space over billions of years. The NASA press release pointed out how the lighter of the two isotopes tends to float off into space faster, leaving whatever is left behind mixed in with the heavier isotope.

As noble gases such as argon cannot be trapped in rocks, they can only be removed by the “sputtering” phenomenon, where ions caught in solar winds can bounce atmospheric gas into space due to their high speeds. The researchers measured how much argon may have been lost by sputtering, then did the same to some other atoms and molecules, primarily carbon dioxide.

Was Alien Life Wiped Out On Mars By Ancient Tsunamis? https://t.co/w9WDS310A0 pic.twitter.com/KZU2M1hnU9

— dominic garvin (@roswellmcdio) March 31, 2017

According to Jakosky, carbon dioxide was looked into because it is one of the Martian atmosphere’s essential ingredients, and is a gas that could efficiently warm the planet, thus theoretically allowing alien life to exist on Mars if enough of it is present.

“We determined that the majority of the planet’s CO2 was also lost to space by sputtering. There are other processes that can remove CO2, so this gives the minimum amount of CO2 that’s been lost to space.”

Although the research does make a very interesting case for alien life on Mars, it bears mentioning once again that this may have all happened billions of years ago, and may no longer be possible due to the current state of the Martian atmosphere. And, as ComicBook.com quipped in a report on the new NASA study, “there are no little green men” or “small, furry, English-speaking creatures who will sleep on your couch and eat your cat.”

[Featured Image by SergeyDV/Shutterstock]

There is also a well established conspiracy theory that this alleged alien civilisation was wiped out by a nuclear war that destroyed the atmosphere of the planet.

But, space experts have spent decades studying the surface of the Red Planet, but there has so far been no firm proof of any life ever evolving there, let alone intelligent forms like humans.

And, NASA, and other experts deny finding any evidence of even the most simplistic lifeforms yet on Mars, despite sending various rovers and space probes to explore the Martian surface.

NASA

The snake or worm like dunes have caused a stir online

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which captured the mysterious image, circulates the planet taking pictures, mapping and sending data back to Earth.

Scientists are not sure as to what this object is.

Date of discovery: February 2, 2016 (Taiwan Time).
Location of discovery: Mars
Source photo: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/proj/msl/redops/ods/surface/sol/01237/opgs/edr/ncam/NLB_507300229EDR_F0521162NCAM00322M_.JPG
Camera info: Navcam left B, Taken Jan 29, 2016 at 01:03:13 UTC

Hey everyone. I found this worm-like creature in a sand dune near Curiosity rover today. The photo is from Jan 29, but posted today on their site. The worm has armored segments along its body. I cannot see any legs, and looks like a burrowing creature. This is a photo of the die of the steep area of the sand dune.  The sand dune sides are smooth and made perfect, and this tells me this worm creature burrowed to the edge of the cliff and turned back into the dune so it wouldn’t fall. Excellent photo, for black and white. NASA gets color photos, but does have infrared and other filters on Curiosity. This photo of a armored worm is 100% proof that life, even though small, still exists on Mars.
Scott C. Waring
www.ufosightingsdaily.com