12 December 2011

ANU finds (potential for) life on Mars

| Ruqi
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ANU scientists have found areas on the sub-surface of Mars that could contain water at the right temperatures for microbe life.

“We found that about three per cent of the volume of present-day Mars has the potential to be habitable to terrestrial-like life,” said Dr Lineweaver. “This is compared to only about one per cent of the volume of the Earth being inhabited.”

“Our conclusion is that the best way to find water – or potentially microbes – on Mars is to dig. Sadly, NASA’s Curiosity Rover, which is scheduled to land on Mars in August, has a limited capacity to scratch the surface to 10 or 20 centimetres,” he said.

It seems as though moving to Mars is still a few years away. What happened to living on Mars by 2010?

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