The Science of Conspiracy Theories

Life on Mars conspiracy

Life on Mars conspiracy

Oh boy, this is fun! This conspiracy theory proposes that there is life on Mars and that NASA is concealing its existence. In other words, there is a supposed cover up.

Most of this idea is based on NASA photos taken on Mars either from the rovers or from probes in orbit. The first of these is the 'alien thighbone' photo taken by Curiosity on August 14, 2014. The raw image shows what looks like a femur bone. It sure does! NASA scientists say that it's the result of erosion, and that Mars never had a sufficient atmosphere and enough oxygen to support the evolution of large animals. Yes, that makes sense. Of course it didn't satisfy the conspiracy theorists.

It appears that the rovers on Mars have photographed other supposedly incriminating evidence for life on Mars, including: something that looks like an iguana; objects that look like rodents; an object that looks like something with four legs; a photo of a woman in a terrible colored dress; marks on the surface that look like hearts; a skull; and of course, the infamous face. Admittedly, some of these photos look like living things, but they could simply be equivalent to seeing objects in cloud formations. The human mind is geared to seeing things that we are familiar with. This human psychological power is from our evolution and it represents survival power.

Let's take the face on Mars photo. NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft took the original photo that sparked the controversy in 1976. The 'Face on Mars' photo definitely looks like a face, a very large monument that Martians created to say 'Look at us'. Few scientists believed that this was an alien artifact, and consequent photos taken 1998 and 2001 with much higher resolution and with different shadows reveals that the face image was the result of shadow arrangements in the first photo. Carefully designed photo runs on this artifact proved that it was a natural phenomenon.

First of all, why would NASA hide evidence for life on Mars? The discovery of life there would result in NASA getting a larger budget to send astronauts there to investigate. There is no logical reason for NASA to conceal evidence of life on Mars or anywhere else for that matter.

Is there life on Mars? Let's answer that question by looking at the data we do have on the planet Mars. Mars is the fourth rock from the sun and it orbits the sun from 206.7 kilometers to 249.2 kilometers out from the sun. The planet has a radius of 3389.5 kilometers, which is roughly half the size of Earth. Mars has a mass of 11% of Earth's, so it much smaller and less massive than our planet.

Since the iron core of Mars has stopped spinning billions of years ago, the planet has almost no magnetic field. This led to the fact that Mars has very little atmosphere. The highest pressure is similar to what you would find at 35 kilometers above the Earth. The atmosphere consists of mostly carbon dioxide (96%) with small amounts (less that 2%) or argon and nitrogen. There is evidence of tiny amounts of methane, but it would have a short lifespan of only 4 years. This suggests that some bacterial life could exist on Mars.

Liquid water cannot exist on Mars' surface because the atmospheric pressure is too low. Just recently however, NASA has confirmed that salty liquid water can exist on Mar's surface under ideal conditions such as summer season and warm temperatures. This is evident from changing lines that show salty deposits consistent with water flow. This is a monumental discovery because it shows that water is on Mars and if water is there, then there's a possibility of life.

No matter what, it is very obvious that water in the form of salty oceans and fresh lakes did exist on the surface because of the all the geological features that indicate it, such as deltas and alluvial fans (cone-shaped lines made by flowing water). The two polar caps consist mostly of ice with some frozen carbon dioxide. It's also possible that a lot of water is trapped under the surface of Mars. Again, this suggests that bacterial life exists there.

The soil on Mars is composed of basalt from magna (volcanic rock). There are more silica-type rocks scattered about as well as feldspar-like deposits. The soil contains magnesium, sodium, potassium and chlorine and is in the form of regolith (very fine dust). The dust is often stirred up by storms that obscure the surface. Some scientists believe that water is trapped in the soil as hydrated salts, which suggests that there could be plenty of water on Mars.
The red color of Mars is due to a lot of iron (III) oxide (rust) on the surface. A fine dust of iron oxide covers the surface. This could be a source of oxygen for astronauts trying to live on Mars.

The average temperature on Mars is -60 degrees Celsius, but can climb to 20 C at midday near the equator. Obviously, you won't have to worry about sweating on Mars. Mars is tilted so that it does have seasons, but these seasons are extreme compared to those experienced on Earth. There are frequent dust storms that cover large areas of the planet for long periods. You wouldn't want to get caught in one of those.

So, is there life on Mars? The answer is a qualified yes, but it's most likely bacterial. Earth bacteria can survive in the most severe conditions possible. Mars is not likely able to support any animal life, but there could be something as complicated as an insect.
It's unlikely that intelligent life ever existed on Mars. The planet's ideal conditions (surface water and an oxygen containing atmosphere) didn't last long enough, probably disappearing several billion years ago. It wouldn't have been long enough for complicated life to evolve as it did here on Earth.

Again, there is no reason for NASA to hide any life-on-Mars data. The only the way I could imagine this happening is if they detected alien technology there, technology that they (the miliary) would have wanted to keep secrete. That would make a great science fiction plot, but I doubt that anything like that has happened.

Thanks for reading.