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A class of especially hardy microbes that live in some of the harshest environments on earth could flourish on cold Mars, according to a research team of astronomers and microbiologists. NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity may discover some of them in the Victoria crater, which it is about to explore.

Opportunity is about to reach the rim of a crater that is wider and deeper than any it has visited so far, in over two years roving around Mars. BBC News quotes NASA’s Ray Arvidson as saying, “?We are very interested in whether the rocks [in the crater] continue to show evidence for having been formed in shallow lakes.”
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NASA has found what it calls “compelling” evidence that water is flowing on the surface of Mars RIGHT NOW, and has documented what it believes to have been water flows withinthe past seven years. Keep reading to see more fascinating images.

There are many images taken on the surface of Mars over the past few years that seem to provide evidence of water flow that have either been ignored or dismissed by scientists. An example is an image of apparent standing water that was assumed to be a form of fine dust. However, this image is in need of re-evaluation in view of the discovery that water is evidently flowing from time to time on the planet’s surface.
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Buzz Aldrin saw a UFO on his way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Does that mean there?s life on Mars? There are two rovers on Mars right now, but neither one has been designed to look for signs of life. But some groups don’t WANT future Mars missions to search for life, because they think that any bacteria that is found there and returned to earth, for example on rocks found on Mars, will be a hazard to life here.

In New Scientist, David Shiga quotes NASA scientist John Rummel as saying that any living Martian microbes could “cause unknown difficulties” to life on earth.
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We not only have to find a way to get water on the moon, so we can set up Helium 3 mining operations there, we also need to find water on Mars, if we’re ever going to be able to colonize that planet. If we do find water on Mars, that makes it more likely that we will find life on other planets in the. If we don’t, then it may mean we are virtually alone in the universe, on a unique planet.

Ker Than writes in space.com that the Martian gullies that some scientists hoped were created by liquid water might instead be the result of erosion caused by landslides, due to high winds and comet impacts. They make this assumption because the same type of gullies can be found on the moon, and we now know that these do not contain water.
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