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Hey everyone, this is Elfmaid. Mostly everyone knows about the search
for
life in outer space. Who hasn't gazed up into the night sky and wondered if
there is life
out there? Charles A. Lindbergh said, "Whether outwardly or inwardly, whether
in space or time, the farther we penetrate the unknown, the vaster and more marvelous it becomes."
In the days when the telescope wasn't even invented, people could hardly
imagine other planets, much less other people on those planets. Now, in today's search, we turn
to Mars, the first heavenly object to be explored outside of the moon.
The chances that there is -- or used to be -- life on Mars is looking better
as scientists have found magnetic crystals inside a Martian meteorite. On
Earth, these crystals are only produced by microscopic life forms. The
crystals were buried deep inside the meteorite. Dr. Everett Gibson,
an astrobiologist at NASA's Johnson Space Center, says that they are not
claiming that this is proof of life on Mars.
"What about those canals?" you ask. Well, research indicates that these
"canals" were only figments of scientist's imagination. Recent pictures show
no signs of such things, though they did show huge volcanoes, an enormous
canyon system, and evidence of running water at some point in the past. The
other thing that had given people hope of life was the annual "wave of
darkening" that many thought was growing plant life. This appears to have turned out to be
no more than dust, and the evidence of an Earthlike Mars was swept away like
the dust that had raised these hopes. But the scientists just didn't give up,
and launched the Viking Landers back in the mid-1970s. At the time, they had the
best available equipment to search for possible life forms. This equipment,
simple by today's standards, found no trace of organic compounds on
Mars. This surprised everyone, since there are organic compounds even in
meteors.
Scientists still search, though. Now they look for fossils of EXTINCT Mars
life. Are they just doing a thorough job of their search or are they
desperately trying to get a chance at fame?
For all you Christians like me out there, we know that there probably
isn't life on other planets, because we feel we are God's prize creation. He didn't
make any creature better than us. What about non-sentients? Only God can
answer that one, in my opinion.
This is Elfmaid signing off.
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