• Question: If they find life on mars, does this mean that the life form on mars will suffer global warming as well as us? If so how would it affect them?

    Asked by alannahmp to Angela, Gabriele, Karen, Maria, Shane on 15 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Angela Stevenson

      Angela Stevenson answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Hi Alanna, that’s a tricky question. Mars is a very Earth-like planet, but we still haven’t found life on Mars yet. Also, Mars has a very different atmosphere than ours, it’s more similar to Venus’s atmosphere, with lots of carbon dioxide (CO2). Meanwhile global warming is primarily caused by too much gas (like carbon dioxide) in our atmosphere. It acts as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. So it’s a product of our human activity on Earth. So, it is unlikely that there would be a similar global warming event taking place on Mars! And if there was, it would have no life (that we know of) to affect. Great question and excellent parallel thinking!

    • Photo: Karen McCarthy

      Karen McCarthy answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Thats a great question Alannah. Like Angela said, global warming is as much a product of our human activities as anything else, so I would hope that if we colonized Mars or any other similar planet, we wouldn’t continue these bad habits there!

    • Photo: Shane Mc Guinness

      Shane Mc Guinness answered on 18 Nov 2013:

      And to add to that, Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than ours here on Earth and it is already made of mainly carbon dioxide (CO2). So the production of this particular gas on Mars would probably not have an effect. It’s hard to tell though Alannah. Good question.

Comments