A NASA scientist has revealed a few reasons why we might find evidence of life on Mars or that ancient life once existed there.
Dr. Moogega Cooper has been described as a real life ‘Guardian of the Galaxy’ and recently spoke to Talks at Google about her important role as a planetary protection engineer.
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Dr. Cooper’s job at Nasa involves protecting planets from cross contamination and planning how to safely bring ‘alien life’ back to Earth.
When asked whether she thought Mars has or once had life, Cooper’s answer was positive.
She said: “Did water used to exist on Mars? Yes. Does Mars have some interesting chemistry that could have potentially harboured or sustained life? Yes.”
For these reasons alone, Cooper implies that we can’t rule out that life once existed on the Red Planet.
Nasa also hasn’t completely ruled out that there is life on Mars or other planets.
It may just be life that we don’t yet understand it.
Cooper notes that microbes on Earth can exist in extremely harsh environments and the same could be said for Mars.
If we do find life, Cooper’s next job would be to make sure the Earth is safe when a sample of it is returned to Earth.
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She explained to Talks at Google: “One day we hope to bring samples back to out own planet and you have to have that same consideration.
“When you bring something back you don’t want to bring something that may be harmful to humans.
“So we have to do the best job possible to make sure it’s done right.”
When it comes to protecting Earth from alien life, Cooper says: “We can only protect against life as we know it today.
“If we learn something else, we can modify that approach.
“It’s similar with the Covid approach. You learn something new and you have to adjust it.”
She added: “You just role with the punches because you’re scientists and so that’s the same thing for Martian life.
“We only know life as we know it. So, we’ll use the worst thing we can think of on our planet as the model for Martian life.”
Right now, the scientists are basing their ‘potentially dangerous’ Martian life models on prions.
Prions are molecules that can do a lot of harmful things to your brain.
Some prions on Earth cause mad cow disease, which can lead to dementia and death.
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