The Hunt For Life On Mars

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Recommended: Life on mars research

Jake Huffman
4/30/14
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Summary on The Hunt for Life on Mars
In The Hunt for Life on Mars the author, Donald Goldsmith, provides a very in depth look into the extensive search for life on the planet Mars. He gives us details of the history of exploring mars, future endeavors, and discoveries that have been made in this enormous, yet exciting task. He spends most of the book discussing a rock, ALH 84001, that is believed to be from Mars and contains evidence that has led scientists to believe that at one point there was life and could still be life hiding somewhere on the red planet.
While Donald Goldsmith is not a scientist by any means, he has done considerable research on signs of life in the cosmos and has interviewed several scientists and experts while writing this book. He has also written several other scientific books on life in space and beginning of life in the cosmos. While he may not have the direct knowledge of these topics, he has made up for it by doing extensive research and asked experts in this field for help if it was needed. He is very qualified to write this book and expresses his ideas and thoughts very clearly.
The book begins when a meteorite is found in Allan Hills, Antarctica in 1984. After years of research, it was determined that this rock was once on Mars, was launched off the planet, possibly by an explosion, orbited around earth for millions of years before it was buried in the ice on earth for tens of thousands of years. (Pg 19) The rock contained globules of carbonates, which are mineral deposits of carbon and oxygen atoms that were mixed with other atoms like calcium, iron or magnesium. Mixed in with these globules scientists found polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, whi...

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...s been no findings of extra-terrestrial life currently alive in the cosmos, the fact that there was ancient life at one time on Mars gives us hope to eventually find life on a planet.
Whether it is in one of our nearby planets or a distant planet, researchers are looking at every potential planet and moon that could possibly hold alien life on it. One of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, is currently being taken into consideration for exploration. Doing so is many years from happening but the encouragement from the results of exploring Mars has lead us to consider far distant planets for exploration, when just a few decades ago the notion that there was alien life out there was considered ignorant. If we were to find a planet that could support life forms in some way, it would allow us to colonize other planets and expand our horizons even further than we imagined.

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