Life on Mars?

Author - Mark W J Redding, February 1997

I felt rather strange that during the first half of August the American government suddenly announced that there was evidence of life on Mars. Here we have one of the most secretive nations on the planet, a nation which has denounced every strange sighting, who has suppressed all evidence it has gathered on extraterrestrial beings, suddenly announcing the possibility of life off Earth. So what caused them to do such a thing? Well I can only think of four possibilities :-

1. This is a new strategy of openness by the American government
2. They know that there is intelligent life out there and are testing the public reaction to the news with a safe life form
3. An awful lot of money is being spent on Mars exploration and this is the way that they have chosen to justify it.
4. The film Independence Day was released in August, what better way to promote it?

Of these four, 1 is ridiculous, 4 is barely possible which only leaves 1 and 2 as viable alternatives.

Planet X here we come

Why might Mars missions prove futile?

Well there are a group of scientists who believe that there is life out there in the solar system, located on the tenth planet named Planet X and that Mars is an observation base. The theory suggests that the tenth planet is a rouge planet, of some 5 Earth masses, not originally part of the solar system but ensnared by the Sun shortly after the formation of the solar system. As a consequence this planet has an elliptical orbit of 3,600 years. It is also claimed that the Earth was not part of the solar system but that another planet existed and was hit by Planet X, causing the formation of the Earth, Moon and asteroid belt. They also contest that the earth was populated with present day humans some 145,000 years ago and that since then the inhabitants of Planet X have been watching our progress from bases situated on mars.

Evidence for these theories comes from some rather strange places. The existence of the tenth planet is believed to have dated back some 5500 years to the time of the Sumerian civilisation, where carvings which show ten planets exist. These also show some detail as to the composition of the inner and outer planets (all this long before the outer planets were [re]discovered).

Other evidence comes from the ill fated mars missions launched by both the US and USSR. The Phobos probe (which survived long enough to send back pictures) showed grid like structures on the Martian surface which are claimed to be evidence of bases on mars. The last images sent back by the probe also showed shadows and trails above the Martian surface, which are claimed as evidence of an object flying in the Martian atmosphere (which ultimately destroyed the probe).

Fanciful stuff? Maybe ...only future Mars missions will tell.

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