Make an argument for or against life on Mars. Start by defining some kind of lit
ID: 299725 • Letter: M
Question
Make an argument for or against life on Mars. Start by defining some kind of litmus test for life and why it works. Then apply this test to Mars in comparison to life as you know it on Earth. Make an argument for or against life on Mars. Start by defining some kind of litmus test for life and why it works. Then apply this test to Mars in comparison to life as you know it on Earth. Make an argument for or against life on Mars. Start by defining some kind of litmus test for life and why it works. Then apply this test to Mars in comparison to life as you know it on Earth.Explanation / Answer
Answer:
For life as we know to exist, we basically need two things- carbon and water. Of all the planets that fall in the ‘goldilocks zone’, Mars comes closest to Earth in the sense that water exists on Mars in the form of water vapour and ice. However, Mars’s atmosphere is mostly methane and the temperature can be more than a hundred degrees below zero!
The Litmus test for life in general is the presence of water. Mars has water in the form of ice is curious enough for us to start thinking about life on Mars. The question is if Mars can support its own ‘intelligent life’ as compared to Earth. The term ‘intelligent life’ is in a sense restricted to our process of thinking about human life or at least something that comes close to it (apes, gorillas, aliens- there is much to choose from). For the sake of this argument lets assume we believe that ‘intelligent life’ exists outside of planet Earth. But our definition of life is something that Mars cannot, at this point, support and form a solid foundation to argue upon.
When we say we can correlate water and life – we are restricting ourselves to finding living beings whose processes work similar to ours. So, personally, I would say that life can exist on Mars but not as we know it.
Just as a side note- Elon Musk has made a pretty incredible theory on how we will be able to inhabit Mars in the future. If you are looking for an interesting read, you can research this topic for further study.
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