You know that whole science fiction movie trope where aliens come to Earth and destroy life without remorse? Well, what if we were unwittingly that alien? A recent theory reveals that we may have actually killed life on Mars while looking for it.
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Viking 1 and 2 were launched in 1975 in an expedition to the Red Planet. The plan was to discover if Mars could support life and run several tests on the minerals and composition of the planet. However, in our innocent efforts, a scientist claims we may have done more damage than good.
One of the tests run by the Mars mission was to add some water to the planet's surface. This was to test whether or not Mars could support life, like Earth. This, says the scientist, may have been where the problem stemmed from.
Life on Mars is a dry existence.
The scientist believes that the inconclusive microbial material found on the Mars surface already supported life. He claims that the makeup of the soil retains water differently. Rather than requiring the vast amount of water we wet humans need, it can subsist on almost nothing.
The soil on the planet is able to pull the very small amount of water available and use it in a way alien to us. Schulze-Makuch, the theorizing scientist, says, "Life is very good at taking advantage of these physical or chemical effects. There are plenty of examples in biology, which is very good at using these kinds of effects — I'd nearly call them tricks because they're using this kind of quirky physics or chemistry," about possible life on Mars.
Because of that, our addition of water to the surface of Mars could have been way too much for whatever life there may have been there. Schulze-Makuch puts it into layman's terms for us plebs. "'OK, look, that's a human and it needs water,' and puts you directly in the middle of the ocean. You wouldn't like that, right?" Put like that, it's easy to see why pouring water on the surface of Mars could be a little detrimental to little Martians.
The theory was received well by other scientists. This particular theory wasn't thrown out or ridiculed. Currently, we know so little about the planet, it's anyone's guess what's going on. Honestly, I just hope they don't hold a grudge.
