Is There Really Extraterrestrial Life or a Man on Mars?

The media world is buzzing about whether or not we are really alone in the universe after recent images from Mars surface give the appearance of a figure walking on the Red Planet.

The photographs, which were taken four years ago, by NASA's Mars Explorer Spirit are sketchy and blurred images at best. Some outlets claim the figure looks like a woman with an outstretched arm, others say it resembles Bigfoot. Others claim it looks like a man walking, sitting, or pointing and some descriptions dismiss it entirely as just an oddly misshapen rock.

Since the Rorschach Test for Extraterrestrial Life on Mars has already been so widely discussed, perhaps we can put our opinions aside and look at the real issues these photographs present:

What is the real likelihood that there really is extraterrestrial life on Mars?

Why is the possibility of life on Mars so important, right now?

The possibility of life on Mars is not entirely a new concept as it has received a sizeable amount of news and press coverage, particularly in the last two decades.

A press release date August 7, 1996 from NASA reported that a NASA research team discovered the first organic molecules thought to be of Martian origin within a meteorite, called ALH84001. The meteorite, found in Antarctica in 1984, supplied indirect evidence for the existence of microbial life found in several mineral features and possible microscopic fossils of primitive, bacteria-like organisms.

Within the press release from NASA, planetary scientist Dr. David McKay, is quoted. "There is not any one finding that leads us to believe that this is evidence of past life on Mars. Rather, it is a combination of many things that we have found," said McKay. McKay later adds that, "The relationship of all of these things in terms of location - within a few hundred thousandths of an inch of one another - is the most compelling evidence."

Seven months later, on May 19, 1997 this Life on Mars discussion continued at a NASA press briefing at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, which aired on NASA television.
Additional information regarding these findings of meteorite called ALH84001 are available online at the Lunar and Planetary Institute website. Another informative NASA article that summaries the main arguments for the evidence of life within ALH84001 is entitled, Evidence of Ancient Martian Life in Meteorite ALH84001?

The idea of primitive extraterrestrial microbial life was presented again to the public for consideration in 2001. An article by Herald Franzen, appearing in Scientific American, reported a team of scientists from India and the UK claimed to have discovered evidence of extraterrestrial microbial life in the earth's stratosphere through the conclusions they made from collected air samples. Peers remained healthily skeptical of this claim however as it seemed to lack as much credibility as other sources.

Currently, it seems that the existence of microbial life outside of Earth is far less of a stretch to the minds of mainstream scientists and the general public than say, for instance, Bigfoot waving at us from Mars. The debate is still an ongoing one.

Considering 2008 is also an election year, it could be that Mars' Bigfoot is simply a clever ploy to convince the general public that NASA budget cuts are really unnecessary. In the spirit of an interesting election year, is it an impossibility that there's life on Mars at least realistic enough to influence the vote?

Sources Cited

*Hyperlinks to articles appear within text

Crikey! There's a little green man on Mars!
Available online at: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23433577-details/Crikey!%20There's%20a%20little%20green%20man%20on%20Mars/article.do

Evidence of Ancient Martian Life in Meteorite ALH84001? Available online at: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html

Franzen, Herald. Scientific American. Available online at: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=scientists-say-they-have

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/mars_meteorite.html

NASA press release: Meteorite Yields Evidence of Primitive Life on Early Mars. Available online at: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/text/mars_life.txt

Overbye, Dennis. Budget Cuts Back Much-Promoted NASA Missions. The New York Times, March 2, 2006. Available online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/science/space/02nasa.html