Has anyone been to Mars? Mystery of the century: was there life on Mars. Underground cities of Mars and their inhabitants

From the very beginning of its existence, a reasonable person gravitated towards the knowledge of the surrounding world and its secrets. Moreover, he wanted to gain knowledge not only about those things with which he usually dealt, and not only about those places where his life passed. He wanted to know much more.

Probably, from the very moment when a person made his first raising of his head to the sky, his interest in what exists outside the sphere of his immediate activity originates. Indeed, turning his gaze upward, he saw a huge yellow sun, and a moon, and a myriad of stars spread across the endless expanses of heaven, among which was a very unusual star with a bright orange, even fiery radiance - the planet Mars.

Over time, a person began to be interested in things of a universal scale. Are there extraterrestrial intelligence, alien civilizations, other races of intelligent living beings? And today, one of the most important and burning questions has become the question of Why exactly there? In this short article we will make a brief overview of the information available on this subject.

The inhabitants of Ancient Egypt and Babylon called it the Red Star. Pythagoras proposed to give her the name Piraeus, which meant "fiery". The ancient Greeks called her Ares (Ares is the ancient Greek god of war). And since Mars was the god of war in Roman mythology, in the end the planet was called that. Although in Russia until the 18th century the Greek names of the planets were in use, and therefore Mars was called Arey or Arris.

To date, many space projects have been carried out (successful and not), which allowed us to learn a lot about him. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun (after Earth) and our closest space neighbor (along with Venus). The distance from the Sun is 228 million km. And from the Earth - 55.76 million km (when the position of the Earth is exactly between Mars and the Sun) and 401 million km (when the position of the Sun is exactly between Mars and the Earth). Its diameter is 6670 km, which is almost two times less

The atmosphere is 75% carbon dioxide, with the remaining 25% carbon dioxide mixed in. This makes life on Mars unlikely, to say the least. But climatic conditions theoretically allow the existence of liquid water on the surface. And water, as you know, is the source of life. Atmospheric pressure on the planet is 160 times lower than the earth's. The air temperature during the day is about +15 °С, and at night it drops to -80 °С (at the poles to -143 °С). The surface of the planet is cold, desolate and dry. And sandstorms blacken the sky for weeks and months.

Be that as it may, Mars is the only one of all the planets that is most similar to the Earth and most suitable for life. More and more images of the Martian surface suggest that there were times on Mars when water played a significant role - formations were discovered that resembled riverbeds and places where lakes and even seas could be.

Some scientists put forward hypotheses that there was life on Mars, but then there was a severe environmental disaster (the fall of giant meteorites) or even a war that destroyed all life on the planet. Theoretically, this can be evidenced by huge craters that go far into its depths.

Martian meteorites found in various parts of the Earth are being seriously studied in our time. The first information about them dates back to 1984. And in 1996, a message was published about traces of the activity of biological organisms found on one of the meteorites. Methane was also found - a gas that cannot exist on its own for a long time in the atmosphere, which means that it is released by something. The source of it, of course, can be the volcanoes of Mars, but bacteria can also be.

Official data is also the fact that many mysterious finds have been made on the red planet. For example, the face of the Martian Sphinx, facing the sky, as well as various holes of the correct form and formation, which may be pyramids.

In addition, evidence that the US authorities have data confirming that life has been found on Mars can be the fact that many of the images taken during the Martian expeditions were carefully hidden or even destroyed by order “from above”. And in conversations with representatives of the authorities and various state structures, there is a clear insincerity and a desire to hide something.

But the greatest excitement is now observed around not even this, but around the expedition to Mars. Mars One plans to send people to Mars to prepare the ground for the future colonization of a new planet. The news is amazing, but not happy with the fact that it will be a one-way flight. Modern technologies make it possible to create a device on which people can get to Mars and land on its surface. But they do not allow a launch from the planet to return back to Earth. There is an official statement that Mars One has already found sponsors and received the first money for the project.

So far, there are few specific details about the irrevocable expedition. But it is known that 4 people will take part in it, and the selection of volunteers has already begun (despite the fact that the mission is irrevocable, there are an unimaginable number of them and new ones continue to appear). The start of the expedition is scheduled for 2023. If this happens, then people will land on the red planet in 2027. They will spend their entire future lives in a Martian settlement, built in advance for them by robots sent earlier.

In July 2015, it is already planned to complete the selection of applicants for the flight. There will be 24 of them. For the next 7 years, teams of 4 people will prepare for the mission.

At the same time, NASA plans to send the first interplanetary expedition even further than Mars - to the asteroid belt. There is practically no information about this expedition at all. But it is known that the flight will last longer than the flight to Mars (more than four years). And the members of the expedition will be able to return to Earth.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that no one can now give an exact answer to the question of whether there is life on Mars. There are constant disputes. New data is coming out. New theories and hypotheses are put forward. But one thing is certain: Mars is a planet where life is possible. Let's hope that further research on this issue in the relatively near future will be able to give us a reliable answer. Who knows, maybe our closest space neighbors are Martians?!

Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Professor A. PORTNOV.

"Whether there is life on Mars, whether there is life on Mars - science does not know" - this is not just a good aphorism from the popular comedy film "Carnival Night", which has widely entered our colloquial language and has become a walking joke. The main thing here is that this phrase for a very long time reflected our actual level of knowledge about the existence of life on the Red Planet. And only now, in recent years, when the latest scientific observations, studies, facts have been collected and processed, all this allows us to say: "There was life on Mars!"

Red Planet. The picture was taken during the last opposition of Mars, in March 1997.

For thousands, millions of years, numerous highly branched river flows on Mars have eroded strata of loose red-colored rocks.

There are many fresh meteorite craters along the banks of the dried up channel of the former Martian river.

Why is Mars red?

Mars has been called the "Red Planet" since time immemorial. A bright red disk hanging in the night sky during the years of the Great Controversies, when this planet is as close as possible to the Earth, has always caused some unsettling feeling in people. It is no coincidence that even the Babylonians, and then the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans, associated the planet Mars with the god of war, Ares or Mars, and believed that the time of the Great Controversy was associated with the most cruel wars. This gloomy sign, oddly enough, sometimes comes true in our time: for example, the Great opposition of Mars in 1940-1941 coincided with the first years of World War II.

But why is Mars red? Where does this blood color come from? Oddly enough, the similarity of the color of the planet and blood is due to the same reason: the abundance of iron oxide. Iron oxides stain blood hemoglobin; ferric oxides, combined with sand and dust, cover the surface of Mars. Soviet and American space stations that made soft landings in the Martian deserts transmitted to Earth color images of rocky plains covered with red ferruginous sand. Although the Martian atmosphere is very rarefied (its density corresponds to the atmosphere of the Earth at an altitude of 30 kilometers), dust storms here are unusually strong. Sometimes it happens that because of the dust, astronomers cannot see the surface of this planet for months.

American stations transmitted information about the chemical composition of the Martian soil and bedrock: on Mars, deep dark rocks predominate - andesites and basalts with a high content of iron oxide (about 10 percent), which is part of silicates; these rocks are covered with soil - a product of weathering of deep rocks. The content of sulfur and iron oxides is sharply increased in the soil - up to 20 percent. This indicates that the red Martian soil consists of oxides and hydroxides of iron with an admixture of ferruginous clays and calcium and magnesium sulfates. On Earth, soils of this type are also quite common. They are called red-colored weathering crusts. They are formed in a warm climate, an abundance of water and free oxygen in the atmosphere.

In all likelihood, red-colored weathering crusts arose on Mars under similar conditions. Mars is red because its surface is covered with a powerful layer of "rust" that corrodes dark deep rocks. Here one can only wonder at the insight of the medieval alchemists, who made the astronomical sign of Mars the symbol of iron.

But in general, "rust" - an oxide film on the surface of the planet - is the rarest phenomenon in the solar system. It exists only on Earth and Mars. On the rest of the planets and the numerous large moons of the planets, even those believed to contain water (in the form of ice), the underlying rocks remain unchanged for almost billions of years.

The red sands of Mars, dispelled by hurricanes, are particles of the weathering crust of deep rocks. On Earth, in our time, such dust is cursed by drivers on dirt roads in Africa and India. And in past eras, when our planet had a greenhouse climate, red-colored barks, like lichens, covered the surface of all continents. Therefore, red-colored sands and clays are found in deposits of all geological epochs. The total mass of the Earth's red flowers is very large.

Red-colored crusts are generated by life

Red-colored weathering crusts on Earth arose a very long time ago, but only after free oxygen appeared in the atmosphere. It is estimated that green plants produce all the oxygen in the earth's atmosphere (1200 trillion tons) by geological standards almost instantly - in 3700 years! But if the terrestrial vegetation dies, free oxygen will disappear very quickly: it will again combine with organic matter, become part of carbon dioxide, and also oxidize iron in rocks. The atmosphere of Mars is now only 0.1 percent oxygen, but 95 percent carbon dioxide; the rest is nitrogen and argon. For the transformation of Mars into the "Red Planet" the current amount of oxygen in its atmosphere would be clearly not enough. Consequently, "rust" in such large quantities did not appear there now, but much earlier.

Let's try to calculate how much free oxygen had to be removed from the atmosphere of Mars for the formation of Martian reds? The surface of Mars is 28 percent of the surface of the Earth. For the formation of a weathering crust with a total thickness of 1 kilometer, about 5,000 trillion tons of free oxygen were withdrawn from the atmosphere of Mars. This suggests that there was once no less free oxygen in the atmosphere of Mars than on Earth. So there was life!

Frozen rivers of Mars

There was a lot of water on Mars. This is evidenced by spacecraft photographs of an extensive river network and grandiose river valleys, similar to the famous Colorado Canyon in the United States. The frozen seas and lakes of Mars are now probably buried in red sands. It seems that Mars, along with the Earth, experienced the epoch of the Great Ice Ages. On Earth, the last grandiose glaciation ended only 12-13 thousand years ago. And now we live in an era of global warming. Photos of Mars show that many kilometers of permafrost are also thawing there. This is evidenced by giant landslides of melting red-colored soil along the slopes of river valleys. Since the climate of Mars is much colder than the Earth's, it leaves the era of the last glaciation much later than us.

So, the combined effect of water and oxygen in the atmosphere, and even a warmer than now, climate could lead to the fact that Mars was covered with such a powerful layer of "rust", and now it is visible as a "red eye" for many hundreds of millions of kilometers. And one more condition: this "rust" could only arise if there was once lush vegetation on the "Red Planet".

Is there any evidence that this was the case? The Americans discovered a meteorite in the ice of Antarctica, abandoned by some terrible explosion from the surface of Mars. Something similar to the remains of primitive bacteria has been preserved in this stone. Their age is about three billion years. The ice shell of Antarctica began to form only 16 million years ago. But it is not known how long a fragment of Martian rock was spinning in space before it fell to Earth. Strong explosions on Mars, according to many experts, occurred not so long ago - 30-35 million years ago.

The history of the development of life on Earth shows that in just 200 million years, the primitive blue-green algae of the Precambrian turned into mighty forests of the Carboniferous period. This means that on Mars there was more than enough time for the development of complex life forms (from those primitive bacteria that were imprinted on stone to lush impenetrable forests).

That is why to the question: "Is there life on Mars? .." - I think we should answer: "There was life on Mars!" Now, apparently, it is practically absent, because the oxygen content in the Martian atmosphere is negligible.

What could destroy life on this planet? It is unlikely that this happened because of the Great glaciations. The history of the Earth quite convincingly shows that life still manages to adapt to glaciations. Most likely, life on the "Red Planet" was destroyed by impacts of giant asteroids. And evidence of these impacts is the red magnetic iron oxide, which makes up more than half of the iron oxides in the red flowers of Mars.

Maghemite on Mars and on Earth

An analysis of the red sands of Mars revealed an amazing feature: they are magnetic! The red flowers of the Earth, having the same chemical composition, are non-magnetic. This sharp difference in physical properties is explained by the fact that iron oxide, the mineral hematite (from the Greek "hematos" - blood) with an admixture of limonite (iron hydroxide), acts as a "dye" in terrestrial red flowers, and on Mars the mineral maghemite serves as the main dye. It is a red magnetic iron oxide having the structure of the magnetic mineral magnetite.

Hematite and limonite are iron ores widespread on Earth, while maghemite is rare among terrestrial rocks. It is sometimes formed during the oxidation of magnetite. Maghemite is an unstable mineral; when heated above 220 ° C, it loses its magnetic properties and turns into hematite.

Modern industry produces large quantities of synthetic maghemite - magnetic iron oxide. It is used, for example, as a sound carrier in tapes. The reddish-brown color of tapes is due to the admixture of the finest powder of magnetic iron oxide, which is obtained by calcining iron hydroxide (an analogue of the mineral limonite) to 800-1000 ° C. Such magnetic iron oxide is stable and does not lose its magnetic properties upon repeated calcination.

Maghemite was considered a rare mineral on Earth until geologists discovered that the territory of Yakutia was literally covered with a huge amount of magnetic iron oxide. This unexpected discovery was made by our geological team when searching for diamondiferous kimberlite pipes revealed many "false anomalies". They were very similar to kimberlite pipes, but differed by an increased concentration of magnetic iron oxide. It was a heavy red-brown sand, which, after calcination, remained magnetic, like its synthetic counterpart. I described it as a new mineral variety and called it "stable maghemite". But many questions arose: why does it differ in properties from "ordinary" maghemite, why is it similar to synthetic magnetic iron oxide, why is there so much of it in Yakutia, but not among the numerous red flowers of ancient deposits or in the equatorial belt of the Earth? .. Doesn't it mean is it that some mighty flow of energy once burned the surface of the north-east of Siberia?

I see the answer in the sensational discovery of a giant meteorite crater in the basin of the Siberian Popigay River. The diameter of the Popigai crater is 130 km, and to the southeast there are also traces of other "star wounds", also considerable - tens of kilometers in diameter. This terrible catastrophe happened about 35 million years ago. Perhaps she determined the boundary of two geological epochs - the Eocene and the Oligocene, on the border of which archaeologists find traces of a sharp change in the types of life.

The energy of the cosmic impact was truly monstrous. The diameter of the asteroid is 8-10 km, the mass is about three trillion tons, the speed is 20-30 km/s. It pierced the atmosphere like a bullet through a sheet of paper. The impact energy melted 4-5 thousand cubic kilometers of rocks, mixing together basalts, granites, sedimentary rocks. Within a radius of several thousand kilometers, all life perished, the water of rivers and lakes evaporated, and the surface of the Earth was calcined by cosmic flame.

The fact that the temperature and pressure at the moment of impact were monstrous is evidenced by special minerals that are now found in the rocks of the Popigay crater. They could arise only at "unearthly" pressures of hundreds of thousands of atmospheres. These are heavy modifications of silica - coesite and stishovite, as well as a hexagonal modification of diamond - lonsdaleite. The Popigai crater is the world's largest diamond deposit, but not cubic, as in kimberlite pipes, but hexagonal. Unfortunately, the quality of these crystals is so low that they cannot be used even in technology. And, finally, one more result of powerful calcination. The red-colored limonite crusts that came to the surface received such a burn that iron hydroxides turned into red magnetic iron oxide - stable maghemite.

The discovery in Yakutia of huge amounts of red magnetic iron oxide is the key to unraveling the magnetism of red-colored crusts on Mars. After all, there are more than a hundred meteorite craters on this planet, each of which is larger than Popigai, and smaller ones cannot be counted.

Mars "hard hit" from meteorite bombardments. Moreover, many craters are relatively young. Since the surface of Mars is almost four times smaller than the earth's, it is clear that it was subjected to powerful calcination, a cosmic burn, during which the ferruginous weathering crusts were magnetized. The content of maghemite in the soil of Mars is 5-8 percent. The current rarefied atmosphere of this planet can also be explained by an asteroid attack: gases at high temperatures turned into plasma and were forever ejected into space. The oxygen in the atmosphere of Mars seems to be relict: it is a tiny remnant of the oxygen that was generated by life destroyed by asteroids.

The third moon of Mars?

Why did asteroids attack the Red Planet so violently? Is it only because it is closer than others to the "asteroid belt" - the fragments of the mysterious planet Phaeton, which may have once existed in this orbit? Astronomers suggest that Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos were once captured by the planet's gravitational field from the asteroid belt.

Phobos revolves around Mars in a circular orbit at a distance of only 5920 km from the surface of the planet. For a Martian day (24 hours 37 minutes), he manages to circle the planet three times. According to some calculations, Phobos has almost come close to the so-called "Roche limit", that is, to the critical distance at which gravitational forces tear the satellite apart. Phobos is shaped like a potato. Its length is 27 km, width - 19 km. The collapse and fall of fragments of such a giant "potato" will cause terrible blows to Mars and a new calcination of its surface. The rest of the atmosphere, of course, will be torn off and go into space in the form of a stream of hot plasma.

The idea arises that Mars has already experienced something similar in the past. It is possible that he had at least one other companion. The best name for it would be Thanatos - Death. Thanatos passed through the Roche limit, ahead of the now dying Phobos. It may very well be that it was these debris that destroyed all life on Mars. They erased plant life from the surface of Mars, destroyed the dense oxygen atmosphere. When they fell, the red-colored crust of Mars was magnetized.

The next few million years turned out to be enough for Mars to turn into a lifeless desert with frozen seas and rivers covered with red magnetic sand. Similar or lesser cataclysms are not a miracle at all in the world of planets. Does anyone on Earth now remember that on the site of the giant Sahara desert, only 6 thousand years ago, deep rivers flowed, forests rustled and life was in full swing? ..

Literature

Portnov A. M., Fedotkin A. F. Clay minerals and maghemite as a cause of airborne geophysical anomalies-interference. Exploration and protection of mineral resources. "Nedra" No. 4, 1986.

Portnov A. M., Korovushkin V. V., Yakubovskaya N. Yu. Stable maghemite in the weathering crust of Yakutia. Report Academy of Sciences of the USSR, vol. 295, 1987.

Portnov A. M. Magnetic red flowers - an indicator of an asteroid attack. Proceedings of universities. Geological series. No. 6, 1998.

Not many planets revolve around the Sun, it is not surprising that sooner or later humanity had to try to find out whether there is life on Mars or somewhere in the immediate vicinity. Science fiction writers were the first to get down to business, serious scientists pulled themselves up only later. And spoiled all the fun, as usual.

Dead red planet

If you take the reports of researchers, today you can give a 100% reliable answer - No, there is no longer any life on the "red dwarf":

• A photograph was taken from orbit, showing the absence of traces of civilization;
• Samples of the atmosphere were taken, proving the impossibility of using a local mixture of gases for breathing;
• Many devices were sent to the surface to film and collect materials;
• The entire surrounding space has been investigated for the transmission of information at any frequency.

What do we end up with:

1. No signals;
2. unbreathable atmosphere;
3. "Dead Ground" nothing cannot grow;
4. Lack of water in liquid form;
5. No signs of any vegetation;
6. There are no signs of civilization - existing now or ever existing.

The Martians didn't wave to the camera or send out greetings. They even refused to show the ruins of their skyscrapers. It looks like the most common rudeness. But if you add a little seriousness - there is no chance to meet "brothers in mind" or even the most primitive thinking beings on the "red planet". She is dead and has been for a very long time.

Was there life on Mars?

But this whole text oozes innuendo:

• Lack of water, but only in liquid form;
• Life is no more;
• Dead for a long time;
• The absence of detected signs, but not the fact of the absence of civilization itself.

Again, if you stick to a purely scientific point of view:

1. There is water on Mars, in the form of glaciers at the poles - a proven fact, although their nature still needs to be established;
2. The silhouettes found on the ground resemble the outlines of earthly rivers, which may be evidence of a similar landscape in the past;
3. Periodically, there are reports of the discovery of fossils of bacteria and other simple organisms on Mars;
4. It is assumed that atmospheric changes occurred relatively recently, after the fall of a huge meteorite.

Recently - by astronomical standards, this is how the account goes on for millions of years. Most scientists adhere to the point of view that once Mars was more friendly and on its surface there were all the conditions for the origin of life. The situation was somewhat spoiled by a huge celestial body that collided with our neighbor. It was after this that everything that we have was formed - desert and dead landscapes.

Exploring the Martian Surface

We have too little potential in terms of exploring other planets:

• Filming from space is low resolution;
• Launched vehicles can explore only a limited area of ​​the surface;
• Artificial satellites and space stations are launched only into the Earth's orbit;
• The human foot left its mark only on the Moon, among other space objects.

The available arsenal allows us to say with subtlety that there is no highly developed life on Mars. But in terms of microorganisms - everything is more complicated. Only manned missions are able to get to the bottom of the truth regarding the past, future and present of the planet.

Researchers will be able to:

1. Get a disproportionate amount of information;
2. Work in the field;
3. Receive information and material immediately, without delay in months and years;
4. Check the put forward theories in practice, see everything with your own eyes.

Such an experience would be invaluable for a person as a space explorer. But, based on the level of technological progress and economic opportunities, such a flight can not be expected in the next decade. Only hysteria, regarding the futility of the study of the Universe and the impossibility of overcoming such a distance with modern technology.

Similarities between Earth and Mars

Between Earth and Mars much in common:

• The mass values ​​of the two planets are comparable;
• Orbit and angle of rotation around its own axis;
• Being in the optimal range, in terms of distance from the Sun;
• The presence of an atmosphere, at least in the past;
• The presence of water, albeit in a frozen form.

It all comes down to convergence of the main indicators that affect our lives:

1. gravity;
2. surface temperatures;
3. duration of the day;
4. Seasonality and length of the year.

Of course, before "close contact" with another massive body, all these values ​​on Mars were more similar. What cannot prompt an interesting thought - where would the Martians rush if they knew about the impending catastrophe and tried to save their civilization or its remnants? If we take into account the presence of an "ideal" planet nearby.

Humanity from Mars?

Now you can remember:

• Information about the visits of aliens to Earth;
• Mysterious structures attributed to extraterrestrial civilizations;
• Heterogeneity of genetic material in nature;
• The presence of only one "crown of creation", without any significant competition from other species;
• The biological rhythm of a person, to a greater extent corresponding to the Martian day.

We can build a number of bold hypotheses:

1. The Martian ships crashed, the remaining representatives of the species could not create acceptable conditions, and were forced to start everything from the very beginning;
2. There was a mixture of "local" and "imported" species, as a result of which humanity was born;
3. The Martians decided to storm the distant stars, leaving only a reminder of themselves and the local menagerie on the planet;
4. The aliens encountered a highly developed civilization present on the planet, both died as a result of a long conflict.

It's nice to know that we're living on the shards of something great. Something even bigger than humanity itself. But the coincidence of the parameters can be explained by the elementary proximity of the planets in outer space. Millions of kilometers don't matter if the length of the journey is measured in light years.

We can tell if there is life on Mars and what caused its death. But how high the level of organization of this very life was is a mystery, for now.

Video: traces of the existence of civilizations on Mars

In this video, astrophysicist Roman Nasyrov will talk about the shocking facts that speak in favor of the existence of life on Mars in the distant past:

Since the seasonal melting of the Martian polar caps was discovered, it has been believed that on the Red Planet there is water, which means life is possible. Whether there is life on Mars, scientists have been arguing for a long time.

In contact with

Was there life on Mars

Many scientists believe that life once existed on Mars. And there are many reasons for this:

1. Traces of water corrosion were found on the planet, dry riverbeds and lakes. The evidence was found solid state water.
2. Robots find organic matter, and in particular methane and its connections. The presence of these components indicates that conditions for the origin of life were on the planet.
3. It has been established with a high degree of certainty that the temperature on the planet used to be higher. It had a magnetic field and a fairly dense atmosphere.

If we talk about intelligent life, then there is no evidence that it was there. Whether they will be discovered in the near future is unknown. So far, limited areas of the surface and airspace have been explored.

Important! From time to time, photographs taken by space telescopes and orbital stations appear in the media, with man-made structures depicted on them. However, scientists are skeptical about them. Most often this is just a visual illusion, a play of light and shadow. This is proved by images taken at other times of the Martian day.

Is life possible there?

If everything is more or less clear with the question of whether there was life on Mars, then another question arises.

Is it possible to revive the planet? We can safely say that she will soon will be populated natives from the earth.

There are several programs for its colonization. Such developments are not only in the United States, but also in China and Russia.

What is on the planet

What is there on Mars for which it makes sense to go on a long journey? Is it worth it to explore the planet, to search on it the beginnings of civilization(if they were) or life? There no oil deposits or gas, rare metals, diamonds or gold. At least they are still not detected. The reasons why the planet attracts earthlings:

1. Mars is a kind of noah's ark". Stephen Hawking argued that earthlings need at least one more planet in case the first one turns out to be unusable.
2. Processes are taking place on the planet that may take place on Earth in the future or have occurred in the past. This will allow you to calculate the time and build by that time roomy shelters.
3. If there there was a civilization or there are highly developed humanoids on the planet, it’s not a sin to communicate with them and learn from them useful for earthlings technology.

Whatever the goals of governments and space agencies, ordinary people want to know if we are alone in the universe. If not, then why aliens from other planets do not want to communicate with earthlings.

Are there Martians

As for life forms like animals or humanoids, then it is more likely they are not there. So far, none of the sent robots have found no animals, no footprints. As for other life forms such as bacteria or lichen, then perhaps they live in deep mountain breaks and gorges: where water can be in a liquid state. But scientists refute that theory, because with the pressure existing there, which is 150 times less than the earth, water boils at +10 degrees. Under such conditions the origin of life is impossible.

It is possible that there there are living beings, different from habitual forms for earthlings. For example, breathable not oxygen, but carbon dioxide with a completely different chemical composition. These are life forms for which the climatic conditions of Mars are natural. For earthlings, this fact should not be fantastic. After all, plants breathe carbon dioxide, but can Martians breathe like that? There are places on earth where living conditions are no less harsh, but adapted species live there bacteria, mosses and lichens. Therefore, the discovery of living beings on the Red Planet can not be surprised.

Was Mars inhabited

The fact that Mars was an inhabited planet is evidenced not only by landscape features.

In the pictures taken from the Viking-7 rover, you can see on the rocks traces of water corrosion. This suggests that it often rained there in the past.

Yes, and the red color of the planet acquired due to the high content in iron oxide soil. Therefore, on Mars there was a high level of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Therefore, it is more likely it used to be inhabited: it was inhabited by animals and plants close to the earth. The same elements participated in their breathing, metabolic processes in the body.

According to American scientists, this planet 4 billion years ago was inhabited by gigantic insects and bacteria. Tall, like earthly eucalyptus, trees and grasses grew. But there was a catastrophe on a planetary scale, and they all died out. As evidence, the found in Antarctica asteroid. This piece came to Earth from the Red Planet. It was found to have hardened the remains of bacteria, similar to the earth, but only larger.

Do bacteria live there?

In 2005, the Curiosity rover landed on the planet, which experimented with soil and took the analysis. The robot sent the received data to Earth. The results of the analysis shocked scientists and became another reason for heated debate. The scores were higher than they would have been in the absence of life, but less than this enough to confirm its presence. However, scientists hope that at least bacteria and protozoa, but there is no 100% confirmation of this. The question: "Is there life on Mars?" remains open for now.

What was he like before

Recently, it has become fashionable to model the appearance of the planet with the help of various computer programs before there was a disaster. The model of the past is being built based on earthly experience and ideas about what conditions were there, what vegetation covered the bottom of the seas and oceans, what its inhabitants looked like.

Scientists can only speculate about what the planet used to be. In reality, it will be possible to speak about the study of Martian history only after successful colonization. Information about the planet does not allow us to answer with accuracy whether there was or Is life possible on Mars?.

Before the planet bombed huge asteroids, she was favorable for the origin and development of life. This information about Mars is obtained from the analysis of landscape images. The catastrophe testifies huge craters in the southern hemisphere and the fact that it is smaller than the northern. Part of the planet was "knocked out" of the gravitational field and scattered across space. Will it be inhabited again? Quite possible.

Important! Some fragments flew to the Earth. In total, about 30 fragments were found and more are being found. It is possible that some of the Martian aliens, bacteria and protozoa, who flew to Earth in this way, settled and live here. But we don't even think about it.

What is interesting on Mars will become known after receiving data from rovers and research probes.

Will there be life on the red planet

The fact that people will populate Mars is no longer a fantasy. But there is a fear that as soon as they put in residential modules to receive earthlings, “real Martians” will start up in them. That is, bacteria, lichens, mold will wake up from many years of hibernation.

As you know, on Earth there have already been ice ages when almost the entire planet was covered with a crust of ice. But life is reborn new species of animals and plants appeared.

It is possible that an attempt to "warm up" the neighboring planet will turn around for the colonists and earthlings of the present "War of the Worlds".

According to astronomers, recently the temperature on the red planet is rising. This means that she enters a new era of its development. According to calculations made by American scientists from the NASA space agency, the temperature on it will reach terrestrial parameters in 360-390 thousand years.

Attempts by earthlings to somehow speed up this process can turn around for Mars another planetary catastrophe. Therefore, scientists are trying to convey to the world community the possible consequences of the planned activities.

Do humanoids live there?

As opposed to astronomers and physicists, ufologists come forward, arguing that there there are living and intelligent beings. They do not live on the surface, where they would die from high levels of radiation, but deep underground. As proof, they show pictures taken by orbital stations on which wells with a diameter of 150 meters are visible.

According to ufologists, humanoids long ago went deep into the planet, since the conditions on the surface no longer safe. Alien technology allows them to live in underground bunkers. While no one can hypothesize neither disprove nor prove. The technique that earthlings use not enough to conduct a full study. Therefore, whether life on Mars is possible not on the surface, but in the depths of the planet - the question remains open.

Information about the planet

Mars belongs to the planets terrestrial group. He is on fourth position from the sun. Almost twice the size of the Earth. Has a weak magnetic field and rarefied atmosphere. A day is equal to 24 hours 37 minutes. A year is twice as long and is 687 days. Tilt relative to the equator similar to the earth.

temperature at the poles in winter -89 degrees, in summer -39 degrees. At the equator it reaches +18 degrees. The temperature rises evenly from the poles to the equator. summer happens melting polar ice caps. Happens in spring and autumn dust storms.

Was Mars inhabited?

Can humans survive on Mars?

Conclusion

While technology not allowed to settle neighboring planet. One of the ideologists of human migration to other planets, Stephen Hawking, predicted that by the end of this century, people will start to colonize other planets. Whether life is possible on Mars, time will tell.

Claimastronauts and dreamers,

What on the mars will apple trees blossom..

Song of the Soviet times by V. Muradeli - V. Dolmatovsky

Interest in Mars as a planet close to Earth has always been at the height of all generations of people. Scientists have been unraveling the mysteries of the planet for hundreds of years, but their number is only growing and sometimes crowns the size of Mars itself. After all, few people remember that the Red Planet is 2 times smaller than the Earth, and its mass is only 1/10 of the earth's mass. And it is called Red because of the distribution of a large amount of iron oxide in its soil. The planet's dust gives it a pink tint.

Basic information about Mars

Physical characteristics of the planet Mars

Mars - fourth by distance from the Sun and the seventh largest planet in the solar system.

The planet rotates around its axis in 24 hours 37 minutes 22.7 seconds, and makes a complete revolution around the star in 668.6 Martian solar days, called solami, which is 687 Earth days.

The change of seasons and time of day on Mars is almost the same as on Earth.

Atmospheric pressure according to NASA at the middle radius is 636 Pa (6.36 mbar). The density of the atmosphere near the surface is about 0.020 kg / m³, the total mass of the atmosphere of Mars is about 2.5 × 10 16 kg.

The gravity of the planet is much less than the earth's, a person, even slightly jumping, can rise 3 times higher than on Earth.

And on July 26, 2018, it was reported that quite significant reserves of water were found in the form of ice under the surface of the Moon by Italian scientists using the Marsis radar in the form of an underground lake with a diameter of about 20 kilometers at a depth of about 1.5 kilometers under a layer of ice.

Traces of water have been found in the moon's atmosphere at the south pole.

Liquid water has been found on Mars. The long-awaited discovery was made by Italian scientists

And more recently, American scientists discovered streams on the surface of Mars, dark stripes up to 5 meters wide are visible in the images, which appear only during the Martian summer. Most likely, these traces are left by water of very high salinity, which thaws at the equator of Mars. The former hypothesis of some hidden source of water located at a great depth inside Mars is still only a hypothesis.

Mars has the highest mountains in the solar system. Olympus- not only the highest peak of Mars, but of the entire solar system, reaching about 27 kilometers.

By analogy with mountains, the planet is also famous for its gorges. The deepest in the Mariner Valley is a 7-kilometer gorge with a length of about 4,000 km.

The rarefied atmosphere of Mars consists of only 0.1% oxygen, 95% carbon dioxide, nitrogen 2.7% and 1.6% argon.

Is there life on Mars

famous comedy question “Is there life on Mars, is there life on Mars…” is still open. However, everything that is known to science today allows us to conclude that perhaps life was once, perhaps it is now, but only at the initial stage of development, at the level of unicellular or simple organisms. But this is life!

Sharp fluctuations in night and day temperatures from - 80 ºC (at the poles -143 ºC) the night before +30 ºC at noon on the equator of Mars, the strongest dry winds, the high rarefaction of the atmosphere - all this suggests the impossibility of the survival of living organisms (like terrestrial ones) on the planet. However, one should not deny the fact-assumption that the existence of other forms of life is possible, which can do without oxygen, water and live at low temperatures.

But the presence on the planet of a huge amount of that same iron oxide gives the right to assume that earlier there was no less oxygen on Mars than on Earth, and the vegetation there simply raged. Which once again confirms the former population of Mars.

The surface of the planet, dotted with canyons and dry channels, testifies to the existence of once huge reserves of water. Now these channels are covered with ice and covered with red sands.

The planet is going through a period of great glaciation similar to the last terrestrial glaciation, which ended with us 12-15 thousand years ago and is still continuing on Mars. From images taken from Mars and further computer simulations of images performed by Russian scientists, traces of a large Martian city are visible on the surface of the planet. However, it is not possible to prove that these are really buildings made by intelligent beings.

There are opinions that have not been scientifically confirmed and have the status of a hypothesis that the Martians moved from their planet to the closest one to them and having conditions close to Martian ones, that is, to Earth and gave impetus to the development of earthlings. And it happened just some 12-15 thousand years ago. What could have killed Martian life? Indeed, as a rule, glaciation itself only changes the forms of life, but is not the cause of its complete disappearance. Perhaps life on the planet was destroyed by the impacts of giant asteroids that hit Mars.

Another version: life on Mars was destroyed by an invasion. Whatever it was, so far it has not been possible to prove the existence of intelligent life on Mars at least in the past. Again, this opinion is just someone's fantasy.

Scientific exploration of Mars

Today, Mars is the most studied planet in the solar system and space in general, thanks to a large number of satellites and self-propelled vehicles launched from Earth, which still surf the Red Planet. Our country participates in research and launched a whole series of satellites to Mars, among them such as Phobos-1, Phobos-2, the experiments, unfortunately, were unsuccessful.

On March 14, 2016, the Proton-M rocket with the interplanetary module of the Russian-European mission ExoMars-2016 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The ship is heading to Mars to look for traces of life on the Red Planet. Around October 2016, the system will reach the planet and separate - one module will remain in orbit of the planet, the second will begin to descend to its surface. Only braking on the atmosphere of Mars, according to experts, will take about a year. Scientific data will come to earth in early 2017.

In 2018, another launch to Mars is planned with a Russian landing platform and a European rover. We will follow the research results.

Future of Mars

Alas, despite all the planned research, which is important in general as a scientific understanding of the cosmos, human dreams of traveling to the Red Planet, as well as dreams of the possibilities of planting gardens there, will not come true.

Mars is predicted to die soon from its satellite Phobos, whose orbit is gradually decreasing and this fact will lead to its fall to the surface of Mars. But you and I are not destined to be witnesses of this event, as it can be for all of humanity, because the process will happen, far away, not tomorrow, but after 7-10 million years.

In the meantime, we will continue to peer into the starry sky, looking for this mysterious Red planet Mars with our eyes. And to make every possible attempt to understand and comprehend the deep processes that took place and continue on the amazingly mysterious planet Mars, so far and close to us.

P. S. And this is what the media reported Today, October 20, 1916: "The device landed on the planet, but it is not yet possible to diagnose its condition. The European Space Agency (ESA) later wrote on Twitter that a signal is being received from the module, but there is no telemetry data.

ESA clarified that the emergency situation with Schiaparelli occurred after the deployment of braking parachutes, the landing of the device was abnormal, there is no evidence that it crashed yet. But Academician of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics Alexander Zheleznyakov believes that nothing good can be expected.

Although within 10 days there is still little hope of establishing communication with the module, this is the time the module's batteries are designed for. The cost of the ExoMars-2016 project amounted to several hundred million dollars.