Researchers declared dramatically on Monday that the discovery of stains on Mars from summertime flows down cliffs and crater walls have increased the prospects of finding life on the red planet. This doesn’t mean Nasa will be able to land another rover soon in the more moist places on Mars and photograph little green men running around. What is most exciting about the discovery of liquid water is that its presence points directly to the possibility of life existing now rather than in the distant past.
“Does life exist beyond Earth?” is a question that has teased man as far back as Vedic times from when the concept of “Hiranyagarbha”, or golden womb, was passed down and the Upanishads spoke of the creation of primordial waters first and then the establishment of the seed of creation in it.
It won’t be anytime soon that space missions will be ready to put a man near the moist areas as there is no guarantee now that Earth’s microbial hitchhikers won’t harm the Martian environment if they survive the trip. Nasa speaks of sometime in the 2030s before a manned mission can be thought of even as the new findings have triggered research into the possible origin of the water.
Being the age of the Internet and social platforms, good humour has marked the discovery just as the makers of The Martian, starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on the red planet, must have upped their pre-release estimate of box-office takings. The feeling that we are not really alone in the Universe is the great positive to emerge from the news from Mars.
