The Hindu : The mysteries of Mars

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

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The mysteries of Mars

IN 1672, WHILE observing Mars through his telescope, the Dutch astronomer, Christiaan Huygens, noticed a white spot, probably one of the planet's polar caps. Some 15 years later, he would write a book discussing what was required for a planet to support life and speculating about the possibility of extraterrestrials. We now know that the poles of the Red Planet contain hidden reservoirs of ice that lie possibly only inches below its bleak and forbidding surface. Evidence about sub-surface ice emerged last year, but fresh data collected by the two NASA orbiters (Surveyor and Odyssey) now point towards huge ice deposits in the northern polar region, an expanse considerably bigger than that around the planet's south pole. The presence of vast quantities of hydrogen detected by the suite of instruments on board the orbiters clearly suggests the existence of water. The gullies and channels that mark the dusty red landscape had convinced astronomers that water once flowed on the planet. The question was: where did it go? The new data suggest that the water drained towards the poles until it was trapped as ice beneath a protective layer of soil.

The significance of these findings cannot be exaggerated. Ice deposits on Mars lend some support to the hypothesis that the planet was once both wet and warm — the two basic conditions for supporting life. As scientists acknowledge, there can be no ruling out that some form of life, probably only in some primitive microbial form, survives even today. In 1996, the arresting possibility that there was life beyond Earth seemed as if it had been confirmed after NASA scientists claimed the existence of fossil bacteria in a meteorite that originated from the planet. However, doubts that the structures on the rock were caused by chemical processes or by terrestrial contamination have led to a general consensus that the fossil find was inconclusive. However, we now know that microbial life can survive in places once regarded as totally inhospitable — for example, in a thermal spring or within a bed of ice in either of the Earth's poles. By implication, such knowledge has increased the possibility that there may have been, and may even be, life on Mars. One result of this, of course, has been a virtual rush for the Red Planet.

This month, two missions have blasted off for Mars, and the other will take off shortly. One is British and the other two belong to NASA. It is true that the rush of missions is partly due to planetary configuration — Mars will be closer to Earth in the next few months than it will be in a long time. The missions will rely on rovers or buggies that will search for evidence of water and may well settle the question of Mars' mysterious past. The British probe will reach Mars first, some time at the end of this year, and will, like the other two missions, collect rock, soil and air samples and analyse them for evidence of life, past and present. Vast ice deposits on Mars may be significant for many reasons, ranging from providing a possible source of drinking water to a source for rocket fuel in some distant and unimaginable future. But both popular and scientific interest in the Mars probes is sustained by a burning question that has captivated humankind for thousands of years: did life exist outside Earth? No conclusive light may be shed on this question. But the excitement lies in the fact that the probes might find some evidence of life — a discovery that will change the way we think about ourselves and our place in the universe.

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