Do Martians Exist?

If "Martians" ever existed, they wouldn't be the "little green men" of our imagination. Water probably didn't exist on the surface of Mars long enough for anything other than very small, bacteria-like life forms to develop.

Even the prospect of finding the tiniest life forms, however, is extremely exciting. To our knowledge, life has only developed on one planet: Earth. Finding life on Mars, however small it might be, would radically change the way we think about the possibilities for life throughout the Universe.

Finding Signs of Life on Mars

Finding life isn't exactly easy--scientists aren't even satisfied yet that they have a definition for life that would work for any planet. It's a little easier to define what it means on Earth, but have we fully considered what alien life might be like? What if we were only looking for Earth-like life, and missed the other kinds of life that might be possible?

Questions like these are being asked by astrobiologists, the scientists who study life and its possibilities throughout the Universe.

Identifying Life Wherever it Exists

Find out how astrobiologists are thinking about non-Earth-centric definitions of life. Learn about the strange world of microbes on our own planet--it might seem alien, but it exists all around us. See if you can pick out the life forms in scientific images too.
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