Little Green Men Or Just Little Microscopic Organisms? :: essays research papers fc

Little Green Men or Just Little Microscopic Organisms?     The question of life on Mars is a puzzle that has plagued many mindsthroughout the world. Life on Mars, though, is a reality. When you think ofMartians, you think of elfin green men who are mean to invade Earth anddestroy all human life, right? Well, some do and some do not. Though believingthat there are little green men on Mars is just a fantasy, or is it? The kindof life that may have lived there is the kind you would never intend of givingthe name "Martian" to. They are small organisms such as microbes or bacteria.     Proof of this was found in a meteorite containing the fossils of themicroscopic organisms intact. Two super regarded chemistry professors fromStanford, Claude Maechling and Richard Zare, dissected three meteorites thatwere about 2 to 8 millimeters long and found trace elements of a big mumbo jumboword polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. That elegant much m eans that there oncewas a warmer climate and maybe even lakes or oceans. Life on Mars is now a realidea.     The climate of Mars about 3.8 billion years ago was much similar to theyoung Earth. Microbes and bacteria probably sprouted everywhere in the warm andwet climate. Although now we only see a cold red planet, which was probably dueto a collision of an astroid that would have set underpin the evolution process ofMars, causing it to be a harsh planet. A Viking spacecraft which landed on Marsin 1976 found that the planet was bathed in ultraviolet radiation, "intenseenough so it would probably fry any microbe we know on this planet,"says JackFarmer, an Ames researcher who calls himself an "exopaleontologist"a searcherfor fossils on other worlds. The redness of Mars is due to the chemical assaultknown as oxidation, which turns iron compounds into rust, and it would surelykill anything that sticks its head up.     "So why d o you still believe that there is life on Mars?" you say. Lifeon Mars is not located on the ultraviolet radiation oxidise surface. Themicrobes are found below it, probably located in the boiling hot springs, or infrozen time capsules. Life here on Earth are located in some strange places sowhy wouldnt the Martian microbes be found in strange places if they were tryingto hold up? Scientists have found bacteria here on Earth that were livinginside rocks where they got all of their nourishment from the rocks and fromsome water. Martians probably do the same thing.