Eternal questions about Mars

 

"Is There Life on Mars?” is a documentary of somewhat unclear provenance, but presumably PBS-related. It must have been released recently (several productions with similar names can be accessed on YouTube, but they´re not it). The docu gives an interesting overview of the search for life on Mars and how this quest interacts with attempts to explain the emergence of life on Earth. The odyssey of the Mars rover “Perseverance” is prominently featured.

Four billion years ago, Mars had both rivers, lakes and oceans, but due to various factors, the red planet lost its magnetic field and most of its atmosphere, perhaps turning it into a dead world. The meteorite ALH 84001, recovered in 1996, sparked considerable controversy (and a televised comment from then-POTUS Bill Clinton) when bacteria-like structures were discovered inside it. It seems good ol´ 84001 isn´t considered smoking gun evidence for Martians anymore, but at least its mysterious texture created an entirely new scientific discipline: astrobiology (exobiology be damned).

The documentary presents three hypothesis on how life could have formed on Earth: hydrothermal vents (where life can get energy even without sunlight), volcanic springs (where “proto-cells” can form) and impact craters (where cyanide – you heard me – forms in abundance). If I understand this correctly, there is evidence for hydrothermal and volcanic activity on the red planet, and of course there are impact craters, but as of today, no evidence for cyanide. Astrobiologists also speculate that life could have survived beneath the Martian surface.

We won´t know for sure…until 2033, when the test tubes filled with interesting samples taken by “Perseverance” will be gathered up by a new NASA space probe and brought back to Earth (is that really a good idea?) for a thorough analysis. Sure wonder how the world will look like in 2033? The ending of the documentary reveals what all this is *really* about: if there is life on Earth, we are not alone, and somewhere out there, there might be somebody peeking back…

That kind of gives the game away, doesn´t it? The search for life on Mars is at bottom religious. It´s the quasi-religion of the modern world. Or at the very least its scientific community subset. Rejecting God (and God within), the atheist needs his aliens.