Point by Point Essay

Topic: Life on other planets: Are you for or against? 

Narrow Topic: There is Life on Mars?

Point by point essay (outline)

Introduction

Body

• Paragraph 1:

Water on Mars vs The loss of its atmosphere

• Paragraph 2:

A rock that supposed evidence life in mars vs William Schopf evidence.

• Paragraph 3: 

Are in Mars environments for life to evolve? 

Conclusion

There is Life on Mars?

Mars has been an interesting planet to investigate. It has been called our brother because of the similarities that this has with our planet. Let me give you some facts about Mars: The landmass of Mars and Earth are very similar, also, the surface gravity of Mars is about 37% the gravity found on the Earth.  Mars and the Earth are the only planets that have ice caps, Mars has a cap called the Planum Boreum and water ice has also been found under the Martian ice caps. Other names for this planet are the Roman god of war (greeks), and “Her Desher” for ancient Egyptians. 

For some, water is the key to prove life on Mars, Currently, Mars has water but is locked up in the polar ice caps. Nonetheless, evidence for water showed up in 2000, when some images from NASA showed gullies that appeared to have formed from flowing water. Liquid water may flow on a modern Mars, either on the surface or beneath, this debate continues today. After all, it has not been discovered if features known as recurring slope lineae form from ongoing water or running sand, and if there is water beneath this may be even better for life, because underground water could shield potential life from radiation. However, other studies suggest that it is not possible that  Mars has water on the surface. There are no bodies of liquid water on the Martian surface because of its atmospheric pressure and its low temperature. If there were water flowing on Mars the exact source has not been determined so this is not absolute proof, moreover,  for some scientist water is necessary but is not enough to enable life, other environmental parameters are needed.  

There is a theory that says thanks to Mars once had water, there could be microbial life that got started in those days and that it could still be there today. When the spacecraft Viking landed on Mars in 1976, it detected perchlorates in the Martian soil, then three more spacecraft confirmed that.  Perchlorates can serve as an energy source for bacteria because this is a simple food that helps them to live. Nevertheless, to show if this was real,  a student and a professor (Jennifer Wadsworth and professor Charles Cockell) from the University of Edinburgh´s School of Physics and Astronomy created in a lab a similar environment to Mars, to study if bacterias could survive. The results according to them were that the surface of Mars is lethal to vegetative cells. 

Many rocks from Mars have dropped on Earth. One, in particular, called the attention of the scientific community, it was found in Antarctica 1996.  Scientists claimed that it could have evidence of traces of life on Mars. This Martian rock contained structures resembled the fossilized remains of bacteria. This rock contained a combination of minerals and carbon compounds that on Earth are known to be created by microbes. On the other hand, J. William Schopf, a paleobiologist, who specializes in early Earth fossils said that the fossils found in the rock were not demonstrably fossils. 

To conclude, there is no clear evidence of life on Mars. Every time a new thing is discovered, there are a lot of studies that make this founds not very reliables. Nonetheless, it is up to you whether to believe in this or not, all people are free to have their beliefs and until science does not prove life out of the earth, there will be always conspiracy theories about this topic. 

References: 

1. Kluger, J. (2017). Why Life on Mars May Be Impossible. Time. https://time.com/4845251/mars-life-toxins-microbes/

2. Mars Facts: Interesting Facts about Planet Mars •. (2019). The Planets. https://theplanets.org/mars/

3. Redd, N. T. (2017). Life on Mars: Exploration & Evidence. Space. https://www.space.com/17135-life-on-mars.html

4. Wikipedia contributors. (2020). Life on Mars. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars#Liquid_water

5. Zimmer, C. (2005). Life on Mars? Smith is sonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/life-on-mars-78138144/

6.