Chemical tests showed the "soil" on Mars is so rich in potent chemicals called peroxides that organic matter - which is needed for life - is quickly destroyed. (Cooke) In actuality, Venus may be closer to being Earth's twin in terms of size, but Mars has more specific characteristics in common with Earth than does any other planet. The Martian year lasts 23 Earth months, but the Martian day is only 41 minutes longer than an earth day and its inclination of 24 degrees to its rotational axis is very close to Earth's 23.4 degrees. As a result, Mars has four seasons that parallel those experienced on Earth. The Martian.
summer is, relatively speaking, warmer than its winter. Mars ids the only other planet in the solar system other than Earth that has polar ice caps, and these can be seen to expand and recede seasonally, just like the ice caps on Earth. (Yenne).
Mars is a great deal smaller and less dense than Earth. Because of this. Mars has less gravity and a much thinner atmosphere than Earth. It is also colder than Earth, with temperatures in its polar regions rarely rising above -200 degrees Farenheit. The midsummer temperature near the Martian equator can, however, reach a comfortable (by human standards) 80 degrees Farenheit, closer to an Earthly temperature range than can be found anywhere else in the solar system. (Yenne) Because of that one Martian rock found on the ice in Antarctica, and because science's understanding of biology, especially microbiology, expands so dramatically each year, the thought of life on Mars (in the past and the future) has once again become a very real possibility. The rock - a meteorite creatively named AH84001 - consists of minerals called carbonates, organic molecules called PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and small germ-like bodies that could be fossilized microbes, says David McKay, of NASA. The carbonites especially hint that.
