For those hoping to live on Mars one day, there's hope for you yet. A recent finding may lead to evidence that life on the planet does exist.
Scientists studying the Martian meteorite recently discovered a "cell-like" structure that once held water. Researchers say the water had once been heated and probably resulted from an asteroid impact. This discovery adds to the evidence suggesting that there could be life on Mars.
The research, published in the August 2014 edition of the journal "Astrobiology," is a collaboration between Elias Chatzitheodoridis of the National Technical University of Athens and Ian Lyon of the University of Manchester. Chatzitheodoridis found the "cell-like" structure embedded in the rock of the Martian meteorite, known as Nakhla. The fragment "resembled a fossilised biological cell from Earth," but Lyon said in a statement that "it was intriguing because it was undoubtedly from Mars."
The discovery also adds to the evidence that large asteroids may have hit Mars in the past, producing hydrothermal fields that could survive for a long time and sustain life if it ever existed on the planet.
"We have been able to show the setting is there to provide life. It's not too cold, it's not too harsh," Lyon said in a statement. "Life as we know it, in the form of bacteria, for example, could be there, although we haven't found it yet."
This is great news for so many people: those who believe in the existence of extra-terrestrial life, those who believe planetary research and exploration should receive more funding and those who eventually want to live on other planets. One of the individuals who most famously supports that latter option is Elon Musk.
The billionaire and SpaceX CEO has said in the past that he hopes to send people to Mars one day to give humans another home if Earth becomes uninhabitable and to basically just have an exciting adventure. More recently, Musk has even revealed that he wants to build an entire city on the planet, which is one of the long-term goals of SpaceX.
With the Mars Rover Curiosity having finally reached its destination for its main investigations after two years of traveling and an Indian spacecraft set to reach Mars next week, it looks like we can expect to hear a lot of new developments about the Red Planet in the near future.
