Is Mars Still Habitable Today?

Click on image for article!

Click on image for article!

Click on image for article!

Click on image for article!

Click on image to goto website!

end

NASA finds that Mars was Once Suitable for Life!

Click on image for article!

• The Illuminists are preparing the sheeple for the discovery of Life on Mars! Yes, it is true! There are definitely plant life, giant trees on Mars! There appears to be ancient ruins, signs of an abandoned civilization also! (Nephilim civilization IMO). The Illuminists plan is to use the revelation of a startling truth to sell an even BIGGER lie! This is the coming UFO-Alien invasion/disclosure, the endtimes strong delusion of 2 Thess. 2:9-12!
  -
  2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (New King James Version)
  ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
  -
• IMO, this strong delusion will be in 2 phases. Phase 1 will be just before the coming/revealing of the Anti-Christ. This is a HOAX UFO-Alien invasion/disclosure which will turn out to be ‘Good Aliens’ out to save the earth. These beings are really the fallen angels, the Nephilim, genetically corrupted/engineered beings, demons … masquerading as Aliens from a far off galaxy. They will declare themselves as ‘Good Aliens’ to save the world from total annihilation from an all out nuclear WW3! They will reveal themselves near the end of the coming Satanic World War 3.
  -
• Phase 2 in this FRAUD, will be the arrival of Satan and his fallen angels thrown out of heaven.
  -
  Revelation 12:7-9 (New King James Version)
  Satan Thrown Out of Heaven
  ⁷ And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, ⁸ but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them^[a] in heaven any longer. ⁹ So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
  -
• The final act in this LIE, is the deception of the whole world, to get them to attack Jesus Christ, the Blessed Son of God on His 2nd Coming!
  -
  Revelation 16:13,14 & 16 (New King James Version)
  ¹³ And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and^[a] of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. ^{…. 16} And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.^[b]

Click on image for article!

Click on image for article!

end

Mars Incorporated: Russia & Europe Team Up for Red Planet Expedition!

• Why the mad rush to Mars? Even by India? Take a look at these photos:

Plants / Trees?

Mars city? Source: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

Giant plant/tree found on Mars! Source: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

Signs of ancient ruins/civilization? Source: http://marsanomalyresearch.com/

Click on image for article!

end

Flashback 1989: Mars Mission – Phobos II Probe – Russians Confirmed UFO Photographed !

Soviet probe take photo of UFO before satellite Is destroyed. In March 25, 1989 – Purportedly the above-top-secret infrared photo taken from the Soviet Phobos II probe, showing an object approaching the Martian moonlet Phobos. Estimates say the UFO was approximately 15.5 miles long.

end

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Confirmed Artificial Monolith Structure on Martian Moon Phobos!

“There’s a monolith (on Martian Moon Phobos) there! A very unusual structure on this little potato shape object that goes around Mars once in 7 hours! When people find out about that, they are going to say ‘who put that there?’”
- Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, 2nd person to walk on the Moon

Click on image to goto article!

end

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Discovers Conditions Essential for Life!!

• You should not be surprised when life on Mars is announced. There appears to be ancient ruins of civilizations on the planet. These are the Antediluvian, ie. pre Genesis flood, Nephilim civilizations that left planet earth and established themselves on Mars. The fallen angels (Genesis 6 – the sons of God) and their demigod Nephilim (Giants) children had the technology to do so! It is hinted at in the Bible:
  -
  Genesis 11:1-4 New King James Version (NKJV) 
  The Tower of Babel
  11 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. ² And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. ³ Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. ⁴ And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Click on image for article!

Click on image to go article!

Click on image for article!

Click on image to goto website!

Ancient ruins? Signs of civilzation?

end

Mars May Be Habitable Today, Scientists Say!

Click on image for article!

• The mind games continue. The Illuminists are preparing the sheeple for the revelation of Life on Mars! Their intent is to use the revelation of a startling truth to sell an even bigger LIE. This is the UFO-Alien Invasion/Disclosure HOAX. These beings that are coming are the demons, Nephilim, genetically corrupted/engineered creatures, fallen angels … of the Antediluvian world of Genesis 6! The Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican, is in on this coming FRAUD. They are beginning to promote the ‘Alien’ Gospel ie. another Gospel ! This is the endtimes strong delusion!
  -
  2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (New King James Version)
  ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
  -
• There is obviously life on Mars. Those of us who have studied the pictures, records, scientific reports …. know it. Why do you think so many countries are sending space probes/orbital satellites to Mars? The latest being India! There are plant life and trees. The question is: what are those strange structures? Buildings? Ruins of ancient civilizations?
  -
  Mars May Be Habitable Today, Scientists Say! 
  by Rod Pyle, SPACE.com Contributor
  LOS ANGELES — While Mars was likely a more hospitable place in its wetter, warmer past, the Red Planet may still be capable of supporting microbial life today, some scientists say.
  -
  Ongoing research in Mars-like places such as Antarctica and Chile’s Atacama Desert shows that microbes can eke out a living in extremely cold and dry environments, several researchers stressed at “The Present-Day Habitability of Mars” conference held here at the University of California Los Angeles this month.
  -
  And not all parts of the Red Planet’s surface may be arid currently — at least not all the time. Evidence is building that liquid water might flow seasonally at some Martian sites, potentially providing a haven for life as we know it.
  -
  “We certainly can’t rule out the possibility that it’s habitable today,” said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, principal investigator for the HiRise camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. [The Search for Life on Mars: A Photo Timeline]
  -
  Surface water on Mars?
  McEwen discussed some intriguing observations by HiRise, which suggest that briny water may flow down steep Martian slopes during the local spring and summer.
  -
  Sixteen such sites have been identified to date, mostly on the slopes of the huge Valles Marineris canyon complex, McEwen said. The tracks seem to repeat seasonally as the syrupy fluids descend along weather-worn pathways.
  -
  While the brines may originate underground, Caltech’s Edwin Kite noted, there is an increasing suspicion that a process known as deliquescence — in which moisture present in the atmosphere is gathered by compounds on the ground, allowing it to become a liquid — may be responsible. Astrobiologists are keen to learn more about these brines, for not much is known about them at the moment.
  -
  “Briny water on Mars may or may not be habitable to microbes, either from Earth or from Mars,” McEwen said.
  -
  Hardy microbes
  Martian life may be able to survive even in places where water doesn’t seep and flow, some scientists stressed. For example, microbes here on Earth make a living in the Atacama and the dry valleys of Antarctica, both of which are extremely cold and arid, said Chris McKay of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
  -
  Antarctic sites also receive seasonally high ultraviolet radiation doses thanks to a hole in the ozone layer that tends to develop every August through November. This provides yet another parallel to Mars, whose thin atmosphere and lack of a protective magnetic field make the planet more radiation-bombarded than Earth.
  -
  In the Antarctic dry valleys, McKay said, organisms dwell within rocks, just deep enough to be shielded from the worst of the UV but close enough to the surface to receive the benefits of photosynthesis. Something similar might be happening on Mars today, if life ever evolved there. McKay also discussed deliquescence, which in the Atacama allows salts to gather enough water to support the existence of life.
  -
  McKay offered some advice to NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, which landed in August to determine whether Mars could ever have supported microbial life: “Watch for salt along the road!”
  -
  read more!
  -
• www.marsanomalyresearch.com appears to be down. Joseph Skipper had a broken hip and is unreachable (probably resting at his daughter’s place). We will have to wait for him to recover and become contactable!

Click on image to goto website!

Ancient ruins? Signs of civilization?

Click on image to goto article!

end

Amazing! Fossilized Spine Found in Mars Photo? NatGeo: Fossils Could Be Found by Next Mars Rover, Study Hints!

• Published on Feb 19, 2013
  Fossilized Spine found in a Mars Curiosity Photo from SOL 109.  This photo which has been circling the Mars Curiosity forums shows what appears to be a fossilized spine sticking out of the ground.  This is a great find because what else would you find in an ancient lake bed?  We find fossils all the time in ancient dried up lakes so why not on Mars?
  -
• Original photos here and here!

Click on image for article!

end

Study: Earth Microbes Could Survive Martian Conditions!

Click on image to goto article!

• Study: Earth microbes could survive Martian conditions! 
  by Amanda Kooser, http://www.cnet.com/ 
  If NASA isn’t extremely careful about sterilization, then life on Mars could end up being exactly the same as certain forms of bacteria life on Earth.
  -
  The Mars Curiosity rover recently detected signs of organic compounds on the Red Planet, but NASA won’t call the findings definitive. One holdup is the issue of contamination. The trace amounts may be the result of contamination from the rover itself.
  -
  The contamination issue could rear its head again should the rover or future expeditions turn up any microbes. Finding microbes on Mars would be a cause for scientific celebration, but a study published in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America” shows that Earth microbes could very well survive in the brutal conditions on Mars.
  -
  The study’s abstract sums up the issue like so: “The ability of terrestrial microorganisms to grow in the near-surface environment of Mars is of importance to the search for life and protection of that planet from forward contamination by human and robotic exploration.”
  -
  read more!

Click on image to goto article!

Click on image to go article!

Click on image to goto website!

Martian forest? Source: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

end

Strongest Evidence Yet to There Being Life on Mars!

Click on image to goto article!

• The Illuminist psyop is continuing. 2 steps forward 1 step back. Of course there is life on Mars. People like me who have looked at the hard evidence have concluded it a long time ago! The question is: why are they now talking about it? There is plant life on Mars, giant trees (see picture below) … The question is: what are those structures? Signs of an abandoned or destroyed civilization? Ancient ruins, buildings …. ? The photographic evidence available have been tampered with for me to draw a good conclusion! See Joseph Skipper’s excellent website: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/ .
  -
• The Illuminist social engineers are laying the groundwork for their coming ginormous endtimes strong delusion, grand deception! This is an UFO-Alien invasion HOAX! IMO, it will be in 2 phases. Phase one will be the revealing of the ‘Good Aliens’ before the coming of the Anti-Christ. Phase 2 will be the coming of ‘Good Aliens’ out to save the earth, the fallen angels of Revelation 12. These Aliens are really the fallen angels, watchers, Titans, fallen spiritual beings, demons, Nephilim, corrupted life forms, serpent gods … of old, see Genesis 6. The final act is the BIG LIE: ‘Evil Aliens’ are coming to invade the planet to deceive the world into attacking Jesus Christ on His 2nd Coming, the Battle of Armageddon!
  -
• The basic principle behind this coming psyop is: Use the revelation of a startling truth to sell an Even Bigger LIE!!!
  -
  ‘Major deception of the last days… the (Satanic) priest told us … Master’s (Satan) Grand Plan for harvesting the nations/multitudes of the earth into his cause … Just before the close of the great controversy of the forces of good and evil … It is going to be done in a unique manner … people are going to eat this stuff … Spirits (demon spirits) will declare themselves to be inhabitants of far distant planets in the galaxies … coming to warn inhabitants of planet earth of the impending destruction of the planet … unless something is done to avoid it…’
  Roger Morneau, Ex Satanist
  -
  2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (New King James Version)
  ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
  -
  Revelation 12:7-9 (New King James Version)
  Satan Thrown Out of Heaven
  ⁷ And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, ⁸ but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them^[a] in heaven any longer. ⁹ So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
  -
  Revelation 16:13,14 & 16 (New King James Version)
  ¹³ And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and^[a] of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. ^{…. 16} And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.^[b]
  -
• Strongest Evidence Yet to There Being Life on Mars! 
  by Telegraph reporters, www.telegraph.co.uk
  Martian rocks from a crater hit by a meteorite may contain the strongest evidence yet that there is life on Mars.
  -
  Prof John Parnell, 55, has co-written a theory with Dr Joseph Michalski, a planetary geologist at the Natural History Museum, that suggests they have discovered the best signs of life in the huge McLaughlin Crater on the surface of Mars.
  -
  The document, published today in Nature Geoscience journal, describes how they assessed the crater, created by a meteorite which smashed into the surface of Mars, flinging up rocks from miles below.
  -
  The rocks appear to be made up of clays and minerals which have been altered by water – the essential element to support life. Speaking from his laboratory at the University of Aberdeen, geochemist Prof Parnell said: “We could be so close to discovering if there is, or was, life on Mars.
  -
  “We know from studies that a substantial proportion of all life on Earth is also in the subsurface and by studying the McLaughlin Crater we can see similar conditions beneath the surface of Mars thanks to observations on the rocks brought up by the meteorite strike.
  -
  “There can be no life on the surface of Mars because it is bathed in radiation and it’s completely frozen. However, life in the sub surface would be protected from that.
  -
  “And there is no reason why there isn’t bacteria or other microbes that were or still are living in the small cracks well below the surface of Mars. “One of the other things we have discussed in our paper is that this bacteria could be living off hydrogen, which is exactly the same as what microbes beneath the surface of the Earth are doing too.
  -
  “Unfortunately, we won’t find any evidence of animals as the most complex life you might get in the sub surface would be fungi. “But fungi aren’t even that far removed from plants and animals, so I think you could say that life on Mars could be complex, but small.”
  -
  read more!

Giant plant/tree found on Mars! Source: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

Click on image to go article!

Click on image to goto website!

end

Signs of Biological Life Discovered on Mars and Mercury?!

Part 2  ,  Part 3

• NASA means Never A Straight Answer! They have an agenda to hide the truth from the sheeple because of the 1960 Brookings Report. See also:
  -
  NASA Backs Off on Mars ‘Historic Announcement’ !
  Dr. Tom Van Flandern Ex Chief Astronomer & Dr. Brian O’Leary Ex Astronaut: Life On Mars! Artificial Structures, Ancient Ruins, Trees ….
  Flashback 2008: World-Class Astrobiologist Says “NASA’s Hiding Current Life on Mars!”
  Flashback 2008: Scientist Claims Mars has ‘Contemporary’ Life!
  ‘It’s 99% Certain There is Life on Mars’: Shock Finding As Scientists Re-Analyse Soil Samples from Seventies Viking Lander!
  -
• Signs of Biological Life Discovered on Mars and Mercury?! 
  by JG Vibes, theintelhub.com 
  The possibility of extraterrestrial contact has been pondered for ages but in recent history there has been an incredible amount of public interest in the topic.
  -
  Until recently the discussion of extraterrestrial life has been a very underground topic.  In the beginning of the 21^st century the sightings and other evidence that supports extraterrestrial life became staggering.  The scientific community has even been making incredible progress in the search for life supporting planets and alien organisms.
  -
  Just in the past week the first signs of life have been reported from both Mars and Mercury.
  -
  Discovery News Reported that:
  “NASA dispatched the Curiosity rover to Mars to look for organics, but a probe orbiting Mercury has beaten it to the punch.
  -
  New results from the MESSENGER spacecraft not only confirm that the planet closest to the sun has ice inside shaded craters near the north pole, but that a thin layer of very dark organic material seems to be covering a good part of the frozen water.
  -
  Both likely arrived via comets or asteroids millions — or hundreds of millions — of years ago.”
  -
  Lead MESSENGER scientist Sean Solomon, with Columbia University, told Discovery News that:
  “It could easily have been delivered by comets and asteroids, along with water ice, and may even have darkened in the Mercury environment in response to the intense radiation and space weathering. Certainly the darkness of the covering material was a surprise and the explanation that seems to fit all the data is that it’s organic material. It’s quite interesting,”
  -
  Days later signs of life were reported on Mars as well.  National Geographic Reported that:
  “NASA‘s Mars rover Curiosity has detected several simple carbon-based organic compounds on Mars, but it remains unclear whether they were formed via Earthly contamination or whether they contain only elements indigenous to the planet.
  -
  Speaking at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, Curiosity mission leaders also said that the compound perchlorate—identified previously in polar Mars—appeared to also be present in Gale Crater, the site of Curiosity’s exploration.
  -
  The possible discovery of organics—or carbon-based compounds bonded to hydrogen, also called hydrocarbons—could have major implications for the mission’s search for more complex organic material.
  -
  It would not necessarily mean that life exists now or ever existed on Mars, but it makes the possibility of Martian life—especially long ago when the planet was wetter and warmer—somewhat greater, since available carbon is considered to be so important to all known biology.”
  -
  There has been much controversy about the findings on Mars, and there has been little talk in the media at all about the findings on Mercury, but the implications of both are huge.  Life, and the possibility of life, is far more abundant in this universe than we ever imagined.

Plants / Trees?

end

NASA Backs Off on Mars ‘Historic Announcement’ !

• NASA means Never A Straight Answer! The more political games they play the more irrelevant they will become. Many public announcements have already been made by the alternative media! NASA has historical ties with the occult. Many 32/33rd degrees Freemasons in the top echelons. See:
  -
  Dr. Tom Van Flandern Ex Chief Astronomer & Dr. Brian O’Leary Ex Astronaut: Life On Mars! Artificial Structures, Ancient Ruins, Trees ….
  Flashback 2008: World-Class Astrobiologist Says “NASA’s Hiding Current Life on Mars!”
  Flashback 2008: Scientist Claims Mars has ‘Contemporary’ Life!
  ‘It’s 99% Certain There is Life on Mars’: Shock Finding As Scientists Re-Analyse Soil Samples from Seventies Viking Lander!
  -
  NASA Backs Off on Mars ‘Historic Announcement’! 
  by http://www.sci-tech-today.com/ 
  An “historic” discovery made by NASA’s Mars rover was teased by the space agency, but just when space enthusiasts were getting excited, NASA backpedaled, saying that the discovery won’t be earthshaking, but it will be interesting. It may be a case of once bitten twice shy as NASA has been through this sort of “big discovery” before.
  -
  When a NASA official said last week data from an instrument on the Mars Curiosity rover suggested something “for the history books,” many people thought an announcement was imminent of the possible discovery of life on the Red Planet — until the space agency began to seriously backpedal on the story.
  -
  It may be a case of once bitten twice shy as NASA has been through this before — a hotly anticipated and heavily hyped bit of news that only disappoints in the end. The current excitement began when Curiosity mission lead scientist John Grotzninger started receiving data on his computer from the rover’s on-board chemistry lab while in the presence of a reporter from National Public Radio.
  -
  The instrument known as Sam, sample analysis at Mars, has been analyzing a Martian soil sample. “This data is going to be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” Grotzinger told NPR.
  -
  Grotzinger would not reveal anything more, saying it could be several more weeks while NASA scientists went over the data to make sure it wasn’t a glitch or something from earth contaminating the instrument sample.
  -
  Still, a lot of people thought “one for the history books” could only mean SAM had found something suggesting evidence of life on Mars at some point. SAM is in fact designed to look for organic molecules and while organic molecules would be important, it is not the same thing as “life on Mars.” NASA quickly began downplaying talk of a major discovery.
  -
  “It won’t be earthshaking but it will be interesting,” said spokesperson Guy Webster of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
  -
  read more!

Martian dunes, trees and road/path! Source: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

Giant plant/tree found on Mars! Source: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

end

Dr. Tom Van Flandern Ex Chief Astronomer & Dr. Brian O’Leary Ex Astronaut: Life On Mars! Artificial Structures, Ancient Ruins, Trees ….

• These new evidence should come as no surprise to those who know the real history of the Antediluvian world. Fallen angels came down to earth and co-habited with women to produce a Nephilim race of ‘demigod’ children. The pre Genesis flood world was a highly advance space faring civilization. It was a society made up of the ruling class: fallen watchers/angels, Titans … and their Nephilim ‘demigod’ children, the seed of the serpent .. and a slave class of human beings.
  -
  Scientists announce the discovery of startling artificial Megalithic structures found among recently released NASA / JPL photos taken by the Mars Global Surveyor and that these artificial structures are stunning proof that Mars was once inhabited by an intelligent civilization. Includes a spectacular collection of new photographs presented by Dr. Tom Van Flandern, former Chief Astronomer for the United States Naval Observatory. See remarkable monuments, “T” shaped craters, gigantic glass tube systems, ancient forest remains and grand edifices that will leave you speechless. Also features Astronomer and former NASA Astronaut, trained to go to Mars, Dr. Brian O’Leary.
  -
• See also: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

Source: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

end

Flashback 2008: World-Class Astrobiologist Says “NASA’s Hiding Current Life on Mars!”

I was completely astounded to see oscillations in the Labeled Release experiment with a period of one Martian SOL [Martian day]” Miller said … Circadian rhythms are metabolic cycles indicative of living organisms, that (on Earth …) take about 24 hours to complete from start to finish.

“We’re flabbergasted by this data,… We’ve found nutrients that could support life … you might be able to grow asparagus very well [on Mars]”

• World-Class Astrobiologist Says “NASA’s Hiding Current  Life on Mars!” 
  by Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara, http://www.enterprisemission.com/
  Just a few weeks ago (May 25th …), NASA landed its latest unmanned spacecraft — the Phoenix Mission — on the surface of the planet Mars, this time near the Red Planet’s North Pole (below).
  -
  The name “Phoenix” covers a host of metaphorical allusions familiar to this readership; the NASA Phoenix Mission (which now officially ends with the coming of Martian Winter in Mars’ Northern Hemisphere, on September 30, 2008) has two official goals:
  -
  “… to study the history of water and [the] habitability potential in the Martian arctic’s ice-rich soil ….”
  -
  Note that this latest NASA mission was NOT (again!) specifically equipped “to search for life on Mars,” but only conditions “favorable for life.”
  -
  To that end, the Phoenix lander carries a complement of six scientific instruments — ranging from two digital color cameras (one in stereo), to a robotic sampler arm (below) — the latter designed for digging in the soil and conveying samples of that soil to two of those six instruments, the ones involving detailed chemical analysis ….
  -
  Unfortunately (by accident … design?), these two instruments cannot directly sense the presence of such potental Martian life forms in that soil (with one potential caveat …), but only the chemical prerequisites of such potential life … and …some of itscalculatedby-products– should they currently exist.
  -
  The “caveat” is the presence of a high-powered microscope (one of two on-board, actually – see image, below) — this one associated with the “wet chemistry” experiment (known as “MECA”); by use of this powerful optical microscope, if there were living bacterial or microbial life forms present in the sampled Martian soil, they could visually be seen … especially … if they moved between successive downlinked images!
  -
  (Displayed below are several small sand particles imaged by the microscope, after the initial soil collection for the MECA.)
  -
  Of the aforementioned “prerequisites” for Martian life forms … the one that Phoenix is most interested in is water.
  * * *
  Thus, it was with some fanfare that NASA, on July 31, 2008, officially announced that Phoenix had finally, chemically, detected liquid water in its Martian arctic soils (as melted ice …) — making this, at least, the fifth time that “detection of water on Mars” has been officially announced by NASA!
  -
  This occasion, however, was quite different:
  -
  A Phoenix lander chemistry instrument (called “TEGA”) physically “tasted” this crucial Martian water — leaving no doubt as to its presence; previous NASA “water announcements” had been based on remote sensing — from a variety of spacecraft photographs of Mars, taken from high orbit — images which present a great diversity of visual circumstantial evidence for the former existence of “a great flood of running on water on the Planet Mars” … but not “when” it might have been there.
  -
  The TEGA insituwater measurements left no doubt: there is a vast amount of frozen water in the arctic latitudes on Mars … right NOW.
  -
  Thus, the first major “life question” that Phoenix so elegantly answered was confirmation of the existence of current water in the soil — which, of course, could then be used by any current Martian microbes that might be living in that soil!
  -
  With reference to the “habitability” part of Phoenix’ scientific mandate, NASA had made an earlier announcement (even before its confirmation of the water …) on June 27, 2008, regarding the nature of the soil itself … retrieved from one of its excavated trenches and analyzed by the on-board MECA instrument (the white flecks visible at the bottom of those trenches — below — are exposed layers of frozen Martian ice lying just beneath the surface soils.)
  -
  To quote the NASA scientist conducting this first, extremely provocative “Martian arctic soil habitability analysis”:
  -
  ““We’re flabbergasted by this data,” said Sam Kounaves, the lead scientist for the wet chemistry experiment on the Phoenix spacecraft, which landed May 25 on Mars. “We’ve found nutrients that could support life” [emphasis added] ….”
  -
  This was then followed by my (Hoagland’s) favorite all-time “Martian” quote:
  -
  “… you might be able to grow asparagus very well [on Mars],” Kounaves said [emphasis added].
  -
  However, one day following the release of the Phoenix water confirmation, on July 31st, rumors began to circulate “… NASA is holding something back.” Craig Covault, Senior Editor of “AvWeek” (Aviation Week and Space Technology — the “bible” of the aerospace industry) reported in an August 1 story:
  -
  read more!

Ancient ruins? Signs of civilzation?

end

Flashback 2008: Scientist Claims Mars has ‘Contemporary’ Life!

Martian forest? Source: http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

• Scientist claims Mars has ‘contemporary’ life! 
  by Indo-Asian News Service, Sunday, August 10, 2008, (London) http://www.ndtv.com/ 
  A leading international space scientist says there is now clear evidence of life on Mars but that American authorities are hesitating from announcing it for political reasons.
  -
  “The discovery of liquid water on Mars combined with earlier discoveries of organic substances in a meteorite that came from Mars, and also of methane in the Martian atmosphere all point to the existence of life — contemporary life — on the Red Planet,” said Chandra Wickramasinghe, a globally renowned astrobiologist.
  -
  “I am not speaking of fossilized life but contemporary life,” emphasised Wickramasinghe, who is professor of applied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Cardiff in Wales.
  -
  Wickramasinghe, a student and collaborator of the late British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, spoke to London-based Sri Lankan diplomat and journalist Walter Jayawardhana, who made the text of the interview available to IANS.
  -
  Wickramasinghe, an internationally-respected astrobiologist, is also a leading advocate of a theory known as Panspermia, which suggests that all planets have been seeded for life by microbes from outer space and is thought to be a minority-view among scientists.
  -
  Wickramasinghe’s associate Hoyle, a Cambridge scientist who was controversially overlooked for the Nobel Prize, was also the PhD guide of Indian astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar.
  -
  Hoyle’s co-worker William Alfred Fowler won a 1983 Nobel along with the Indian-origin scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar for their work on neucleosynthesis — a concept that was established by Hoyle in 1946.
  -
  In his interview, Wickramasinghe said the discovery of subsurface water ice in the north polar regions of Mars — announced July 31 by US scientists — combined with earlier developments leads him to believe there is life on Mars.
  -
  “Even as early as 1976, when the two NASA space probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2, landed on Mars, experiments carried out in situ pointed strongly to the existence of active microbial life.
  -
  “In one experiment nutrient broth was poured onto a sample of Martian soil, and it frothed up so vigorously exuding carbon dioxide, that a positive detection of life might have been inferred.
  -
  “But when the NASA scientists looked for organic material, the detritus of living organisms, around the landing site, their experiments yielded negative or ambiguous results. So NASA cautiously concluded, ‘no organics means no life detected’.
  -
  “But 32 years on, my friend Gil Levin, who was principal investigator on this project maintains that life on Mars was indeed detected in 1976! The experiments of 1976 to detect the dead bodies and decomposition products of bacteria were simply not sensitive enough,” Wickramasinghe told Jayawardhana.
  -
  The Cardiff University astrobiologist said the delay in announcing life on Mars has little to do with science. “I think there could be political and sociological considerations at work,” he said.
  -
  “Firstly, if life was already detected, then there is no need to spend vast sums of money to continue the search. “Secondly, there is a lot of scientific interest nowadays in bringing back samples of Martian soil to Earth at the cost of tens of billions of dollars, and there is a lobby that says if microbes exist on Mars we should not be doing this. It could pose a biohazard.”
  -
  Wickramasinghe said authorities might be deterred by prospects of litigation arising from Planetary Protection — the guiding principle in the design of interplanetary missions that aims to prevent biological contamination of both the target celestial body and the Earth.

end