By: Bailey Zimmerly

There are many people who think that there was once l i fe on Mars or on other planets of our universe. Since ice caps have been found on Mars there is evidence that the ice was at one time water. This means l ife could be possible, but is it probable? Well why not? Do you really think that the Ear th is the only planet that has l ife on it? You would think that in one of the bil l ions of galaxies, in one of the zi l l ions of solar systems, there is a planet, just l ike our own that has other l i fe, maybe even similar to our humans. These are some of the many, many questions that astronomers ask themselves every day.

Well, we pretty much know nothing about l ife on other planets. We do however know that there could be water on planets l ike Mars. Mars contains many polar icecaps that could have been water at one point in t ime. With the existence of water, means that there could have been l ife on planets l ike Mars.

One instance in which there was evidence of l i fe on Mars was in August of 1996. NASA announced that there was a discovery of a fossi l had been found in Antarctica that was from Mars. This fossi l was thought to have broke of f of Mars around 15 mil l ion years ago, orbit the sun, and then 13,000 years ago crashed down on our Ear th. This fossi l had provided evidence that there was once primate l ife on Mars. This may be a stretch, but i t does provide evidence of l i fe on Mars.

There was not much evidence of l ife on other planets until recently. Many claims of Ear th-l ike planets have arose, but none were accurate until planet GJ 1214b. This planet is two and half t imes bigger than Ear th, but the temperature is just sl ightly warmer than Ear th. However, the temperature of the planet is too hot to suppor t water and therefore l ife. Then scientists discovered something very interesting., the density of the planet is very low. With this high atmospheric pressure and relatively low density mean l iquid water could actually exist on this planet.

Since l i fe is possible on this planet, there is great interest in the planet. Even though many people say that there is no way that there is l ife on this planet, a scientist named Charbonneau would disagree. He said, " I think it would be foolish to say categorically that [GJ 1214b] doesn't have l i fe. I don’t think anyone wil l know anytime soon if there is l i fe on this distant planet. A MIT planet theorist Sara Seager said, " It 's going to be a big year for planets.“ By this she meant that many planets wil l be discovered and wil l be said to be Ear th-l ike.

There are many cases in which planet l i fe is possible. I think that the universe is so immense that it would be almost impossible to think that we are the only l iving beings in this universe. There are tr i l l ions of galaxies and even more tri l l ions of solar systems within each galaxy. In each solar system there is many planets, so at least of few of those planets have to have the exact or similar conditions to that of Ear th. Life on other planets is very possible, but wil l be very hard to prove without better, more advanced technology.

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