More Researchers See Evidence of Plant Life on Mars

Arthur Clarke also indicates potential for life being visually recorded in the photographs taken by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. He says, "Some of them look very biological to me." Many people are finding more and more clues indicating the possibility for life on Mars, and I've been one of the people who's said for a long time that there is undoubtedly life on Mars, even if it's not in the form of massive banyan tree forests. I believe there is microbiological life on Mars right now, and that the evidence for it is quite strong. This evidence includes gasses found in the Martian atmosphere, the presence of water on Mars, and meteorological evidence found in Martian rocks that have landed on planet Earth and have been investigated by scientists for signs of life. In each of these cases, there seems to be considerable evidence for life on Mars.

There's also the fact that life exists practically anywhere that offers it even a slight chance for survival. On Earth, we are now discovering that life can thrive in places that we once thought unlivable -- extremely hot environments such as boiling water, for example, or extremely cold environments such as arctic ice. In these extremes, we continue to find living, breathing organisms.

There is little doubt that the environment on Mars is less extreme than some of the environments in which life has been discovered on planet Earth, so it only makes sense that there would be life on Mars. To suppose that Earth is the only planet in the entire universe that harbors life is so arrogant and narrow-minded as to be utterly foolish. Only a person completely unfamiliar with concepts of astronomy, biological sciences, and the history of the earth could suppose that somehow Earth is the only planet in existence that has managed to harbor life. No doubt life is very common in the universe, and it already exists on Mars, whether we have found it or not.

• Millions of amateur astronomers are poring over pictures of the Red Planet.
• A couple of years ago, when the Mars Global Surveyor was circling the Red Planet and beaming snapshots back to Earth, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke lectured remotely to an audience gathered at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
• Speaking from his home in Sri Lanka, Clarke informed the crowd that the images he'd downloaded from NASA's Web site showed something growing on the planet's surface.
• Though most space scientists attribute these "dark dune spots" to Martian frost, a group of researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study in Budapest concurs with Clarke, calling the photos evidence of "probable Martian surface organisms."
• When Spirit began transmitting in January, space fans downloaded 35 terabytes of visual data from NASA's servers in less than a week.
• Since the 1960s, when NASA probes sent back the first shots of Mars, amateurs have filled their files with curiosities.
• "Everyone can make their own interpretation - artists, kids doing science projects, folks with different mindsets.
• In the US, the amateur astronomer Percival Lowell widely publicized his conviction that the splotches and lines revealed by his observatory's 24-inch telescope suggested vegetation and alien-made waterworks.
• In 1964, a NASA probe took the first pictures of the planet's surface, shattering Lowell's visions of Martian gondoliers.
• Besides the face, Hoagland identified several other "artificial" structures in Cydonia and connected them all in an elaborate numerological network.
• Plait runs BadAstronomy.com, which metes out the drubbings that NASA is too politic to deal with itself.
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