Alien Life Might be Found on Mars by 2021, And Worlds that Host Alien Life Could be Purple
Scientists developing Europe’s new ExoMars rover are optimistic about its chances of finding life on Mars.
Unlike previous missions which have focused mainly on rocks and surface soil, ESA’s upcoming excursion to the Red Planet will dig down in to the ground to look for evidence of life.
The new rover, which is due to launch in 2020 and will arrive on Mars the following year, is being equipped with special drilling instruments as well as lasers that can pick up the presence of DNA.
“The chances are just about 50/50,” said team astrobiologist Dr Susanne Schwenzer.
“We are going to a very, very interesting spot.”
Over the course of seven months, the solar-powered rover will carefully examine samples of soil collected from below the ground to look for evidence that life exists (or once existed) on Mars.
“It’s not like driving a car,” said rover operator Mark Shilton. “There’s quite a complex software chain involved and it’s extremely slow and methodical. The challenge is that often the most interesting locations for the geologists are the hardest for the rover.”
If the rover actually does find evidence of life on Mars – even if it died out millions of years ago – it will undoubtedly be one of the most important discoveries in human history.
This mission will definitely be one to watch.
That said, some more interesting news on potential alien life…
According to a new paper, a thriving extraterrestrial world could be predominantly purple rather than green.
When it comes to imagining what life on other worlds may be like, it’s easy to get caught up in picturing a world not dissimilar to our own with landmasses swathed in green trees and grass.
But what if extraterrestrial life was a color other than green ? How would an alien world look then ?
In a recent study, two scientists attempted to answer this question by looking back in to our own planet’s distant past to a time when life on Earth may have exhibited a distinctively purple tinge.
The organisms responsible for this, which may have thrived very early on in Earth’s history, capture solar energy with a molecule called retinal ( plants and photosynthesizing algae use chlorophyll. )
If this can happen on our own planet, then perhaps purple life forms could dominate elsewhere as well.
“If these organisms were present in sufficient densities on an exoplanet, those reflection properties would be imprinted on that planet’s reflected light spectrum,” said co-author Edward Schwieterman.
Perhaps keeping an eye out for a purple alien planet is not such a strange idea after all.
Unexplained Mysteries
