Adapted from an essay I wrote in 4th grade. None of the facts changed, just the way it is written.

Mars has been a planet that scientists have been researching for only some time now. However, the reason Mars is different from any of the other planets that we research, is that Mars has some signs of life forms. Scientists are trying to find evidence of life on Mars. They are looking for water, since it supports life on Earth and are examining Mars’ atmosphere, as well as other signs of life.

Humans have been looking for evidence of aliens for a long time. They put rovers on Mars for footage which could turn into promising information. In fact, a rover named curiosity was drilling for rocks on Mars, and some of those rocks contained a lot of the chemicals needed for life on the planet. Another rover discovered that an old crater may have been filled with water many millions, maybe billions of years ago. Research shows some simple creatures could have lived near this crater. However, no rover has ever found carbon on Mars, and carbon is one of the most important elements for all the life that is on Earth. We do not really know if these creatures needed carbon to live like us, but for now all we can do is assume.

Scientists think Mars’ atmosphere would not be able to support life on Mars. An atmosphere traps in heat from the sun, and Mars’ atmosphere is extremely thin, so it doesn’t really trap much. In fact it is 100 times thinner than Earth’s atmosphere. Mars’ atmosphere is mostly made up of carbon dioxide, but it also contains other gases such as nitrogen, argon, and oxygen. Mars’ atmosphere only has small amounts of these gases. Scientists have two possible theories of what happened to Mars’ atmosphere. The first one, is that it sank into the planet’s crust, and the other one is that it floated up into space. Scientists still wonder what happened to the planet’s atmosphere, however, one thing is for sure: the state of Mars’ atmosphere right now would not be able to sustain human-like life. Who knows, maybe life doesn’t need oxygen, but it probably will need water.

Scientists think water is a huge clue to life: If humans need water so might aliens. A rover launched by NASA had found an ancient lake on the surface of mars. Another curiosity rover on Mars found small traces of water in fine dust. That type of dust seems to cover the whole planet. There are also perchlorates on Mars, which is a type of salt that keeps water from evaporating. Water is a big discovery for scientists, since water is a necessity for life forms.

If you are starting to get really exited about seeing aliens, and just the fact that aliens are real, calm down. The “aliens” we are talking about (if we even find any) are probably just going to be tiny specs of bacteria. They probably aren’t going to be humanoid and have 5 eyes and 4 ears. I wouldn’t really care if they found living bacteria, but for the science nerds, it will be huge.

Mars Image:

https://www.vaisala.com/en/blog/2020-07/international-collaboration-takes-vaisala-and-fmi-mars-again

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