• Question: what would happen if we did find water on mars? and what would we do?

    Asked by constipatedmonkey243 to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 19 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi monkey,
      I guess if we found water, it would indicate that there MIGHT be some chance of finding some simple life on the planet. Hopefully we’ll find out soon because of all the research being done.

      Eoin

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      The most important question to me is whether there would be life in it or not. On Earth, we know that water is the most important thing for life to evolve. Hence the huge interest in whether there is life on other planets or not – if there is water, there is a chance for life. What sort of life? My money would be on bacteria, since they are incredibly adaptable, and can live in all sorts of extreme environments, including extreme cold and extreme heat. Of course, it could be a completely different kind of life. Even finding the building blocks of life, complex organic molecules, would be very very cool.

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 19 Mar 2011:

      Hi Constipatedmonkey243

      Been eating too many unripe bananas eh? If we found water on Mars it would tell us that ours is not the only planet with water, and since water is essential for life, it might mean that we can feel more confident that life may exist elsewhere in the universe. I doubt if the water would be of much use to us on Earth, but it might make the idea of a Mars space station more feasible.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 19 Mar 2011:

      Not really my area of expertise. But I presume that if we found water on mars it would serve as evidence that the planet could currently support life, or could have in the past. The next step would probably be to look for this life (which I think would probably be in the form of a bacteria or other such simple organism as we have yet to spot little green men on Mars!) or to look for the fossilised remains of creatures that previously lived there.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 19 Mar 2011:

      hi your profile name sounds pretty bad for monkeys – i suppose at least its not 243constipatedmonkeys though!!

      We have discovered water on mars – mars has a large water icecaps at its poles! these are also huge – if they melted then the whole of mars would be covered by an ocean ten metres thick!! (altho not for long – see below)
      I guess i am being a little unfair though – you probably meant liquid water. Liquid water though can’t exist on the surface of mars, as the atmospheric pressure would make it immediately evaporate. From the geology of mars there is though some suggestion that there have been outflows of large amounts of water when, for example, a volcano errupts, melting its ice cap.
      Your question is i guess linked to whether there is life on mars.Especially so liquid water which is thought necessary for life to exist. Life may might have existed on mars in the past, and may well struggle on there today!! Currently no one is too sure!

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