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The Sun
05-07-2025
- Science
- The Sun
I'm a top astrobiologist – here's why I am convinced aliens DID live on Mars…and they could have been smarter than us
David Rivers Published: Invalid Date, ASTRONAUTS visiting Mars could unearth a museum of alien fossils that may have belonged to an intelligent civilisation. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe backed NASA 's plan to send humans to Mars in the 2030s and Elon Musk's bid to colonise the planet. 5 5 The Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology astrobiologist thinks alien life 'unquestionably' existed on the Red Planet. And he's even suggested explorers could unearth fossils pointing to alien life, possibly more intelligent than us. Prof Wickramasinghe told The Sun: 'I think it is entirely plausible that Mars, sometime in the past, was a green planet full of life. 'Then something happened that made it a virtually dead planet or nearly a dead planet. 'This could have happened after impact. An episode of comet asteroid impacts could have destroyed all life that existed on it if it did exist on Mars. It could have destroyed it just as on the Earth. 'If there was a huge protracted episode of asteroid comet impacts, then this planet would be a dead planet. 'The fact that Mars and Earth are very similar, geologically very similar, have seasons and they have very similar patterns of oscillation of temperature and so on makes it entirely possible that, in the past, Mars was the home of life. 'I don't rule out intelligent life. He added: 'I think astronauts will explore all those fossils discussed by Barry DiGregorio, examine them more carefully and decide whether they're artifacts or real fossils. 'They would encounter bacteria and I think they would find a planet that is very easy to terraform, to make it a living planet like the earth. Hidden ocean on Mars found that 'could cover entire planet with a mile of water' and 'should be able to sustain life' 'If you go with enough resources, you could build houses and build a civilisation on Mars, and I don't think that's impossible. 'I can't rule out an intelligent civilisation.' Asked what that life may have looked like, he said: "It's speculation. It could have been as intelligent as you or I or maybe even more intelligent. "Who knows? I think evidence has been virtually stamped out of existence possibly through an impact episode, if it did exist." DiGregorio had claimed alien fossils had been discovered by NASA's Curiosity rover in 2018. He accused NASA of failing to investigate properly so it could boost publicity for a manned mission to Mars. 5 5 NASA said it believed the images likely showed signs of crystal growth, not alien fossils. Billionaire Musk has long signalled his intent to colonise Mars through his SpaceX company. Last year, the X owner even suggested humans could land there in four years and be living in a self-sustaining city in 20. NASA says on its website it intends to send humans to Mars in the 1930s. In 1976, NASA landed two Viking landers on Mars. NASA scientist Gilbert Levin ran an experiment to test the soil and concluded there were positive signs of life through the presence of radioactive gas. NASA and its other scientists disagreed, and separate experiments from Viking concluded the soil did not show signs of life. But Levin spent the rest of his life claiming he'd found signs of alien life until his death in 2021. Prof Wickramasinghe said: 'We have unquestionably found microbial life on Mars, the most secure discovery was the Gilbert Levin discovery in the 1970s when they did the Viking land experiments.' NASA's mission to Mars NASA hopes to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. The space company has been working to advance its technologies in a bid to send a human crew to the Red Planet. It would take astronauts up to nine months to reach Mars - which even at its closest is 33.9 million miles away. Astronauts could then spend up to 500 days on the planet's surface before returning to Earth - which would take another nine months. The crew would spend their time on the planet collecting data and assessing the planetary alignment that would allow the spacecraft to land and depart from Mars on the same orbit. Last year, the agency completed a year-long simulated mission that saw four crew members out in a replica habitat in Houston, Texas. They logged 378 days in the 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat called Mars Dune Alpha. He added: 'That result was overwhelmingly positive. They got the result that they wanted. 'So almost immediately Levin, who I'd known for a long time, made the announcement on behalf of NASA that we have discovered life on Mars. 'This was a step too far for the NASA establishment, and they then revoked that statement.' On its website, NASA says: "Mars remains our horizon goal for human exploration because it is one of the only other places we know where life may have existed in the solar system. "What we learn about the Red Planet will tell us more about our Earth's past and future, and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet. "Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth." Mars facts Here's what you need to know about the red planet... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun It is named after the Roman god of war The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth, but due to the difference in gravity, you could jump three times higher there than you can here. Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest Mars is considered the second most habitable planet after Earth. It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun The planet has a diameter of 4,212 miles, and has an average distance from Earth of 140 million miles Martian temperatures can vary wildly, reaching as high as 70F/20C or as low as -225F/-153C
The Sun
10-05-2025
- Science
- The Sun
I know NASA is hiding evidence of aliens on Mars – I have photographic proof and here's why they're keeping it secret
NASA has already found signs of alien life on Mars but is still keeping it secret, a rogue scientist claims. Barry DiGregorio, 71, believes rovers from the space agency captured snaps of alien fossils on two different occasions. 6 6 6 In 2018, Nasa 's Curiosity rover took images of what it said likely show crystal growth. But DiGregorio accused Nasa of failing to investigate properly and spent two years researching the images himself. The author, who wrote Discovery on Vera Rubin Ridge, Trace Fossils on Mars, then concluded they were 'biogenic' - meaning they were produced by living organisms. He theorised Nasa was staying tight-lipped to boost interest in its hopes of sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s. DeGregorio, an honorary research fellow at Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, now claims Nasa found yet more evidence of alien life on Mars. He believes images snapped by the Perseverance rover in 2020 show signs of 'worm-like' aliens who roamed its historic oceans. The astrobiologist told The Sun: 'I watched the rover coming down right on its landing site. 'You could see the engines just brushing all the dust aside for the rocks to become apparent, and the very first images it took were these rocks that had holes in them. 'Then after China's Zhurong rover mission, they published a paper where they said all the rocks that they found were of sedimentary origin, and that they formed in In water.' DiGregorio then saw a striking resemblance to the trace fossils he'd grown up studying in Lake Ontario, on the border of Canada and the US. Meet Sunbird, Britain's secret space nuke that could help us colonise Mars… or even take trips to the edge of the galaxy He added: 'It made an intriguing hypothesis because I had always been fascinated by the trace fossils around Lake Ontario, I grew up around that area. 'We didn't have dinosaur fossils, but what we did have was lots of marine fossils dating back to the Ordovician era and even before. 'The sandstones that I found on the shores of Lake Ontario I felt were a good analogy to what we were seeing on Mars. 'Now we know that those rocks there are marine sedimentary rocks, it solidifies it a bit.' And DiGregorio was so gobsmacked by the discovery he thought Nasa was preparing an announcement. But instead, he claims the rover failed to properly examine the rocks. He continued: 'So the fact that the Perseverance rover landed right on top of similar rocks was almost too much to bear. 'When I saw those rocks all over the place, I'm going, 'what? Oh my God'. 6 6 'I thought, for sure, Nasa is going to make a big announcement. 'And instead, what they did was they headed towards the opposite direction. So they didn't really analyse those rocks at all.' DiGregorio doesn't believe the images point to an alien civilisation, the kind that might be drawn up in a sci-fi film. But he does believe they were jellyfish-type figures that could move around. He added: 'The holes in the rocks tell me the story that bigger organisms were there, but they were essentially marine organisms. 'So wormy things, maybe fish, possibly jellyfish, really ancient type things that moved around. 'I'm thinking wormy-type things that were around during the Ediacaran period. 'Then the climate on Mars changed and the atmosphere changed. 'The water probably got absorbed into the soil and a lot of it left through the atmosphere due to the solar wind.' Mars facts Here's what you need to know about the red planet... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun It is named after the Roman god of war The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth, but due to the difference in gravity, you could jump three times higher there than you can here. Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest Mars is considered the second most habitable planet after Earth. It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun The planet has a diameter of 4,212 miles, and has an average distance from Earth of 140 million miles Martian temperatures can vary wildly, reaching as high as 70F/20C or as low as -225F/-153C Nasa said after the Perseverance mission that the findings couldn't be fully analysed because sending the appropriate equipment was too complicated. But the agency is planning a sample return mission based on its findings, and did not rule out the possibility of the Perseverance photos pointing to signs of alien life. Yet asked why Nasa would continue to conceal everything it knows about the images, DiGregorio theorised it was because of the potential dangers to astronauts. Mars has an incredibly hostile environment compared to Earth. It fluctuates between extreme temperatures, and has a surface level radiation that would be incredibly harmful to humans. DiGregorio added: 'I think that they don't want to say anything about it because of the fact they are sending humans there. 'If you have microbes on Mars, and they say we've discovered life on Mars, it could be different to Earth life and could be toxic or dangerous to human astronauts. That's what I think it is.' According to Nasa's website, it hopes they will send humans to Mars in the 2030s. A Nasa spokesman, responding to DiGregorio's claims, told The Sun one of the agency's goals is to "understand whether Mars has, or ever has had life, and any credible evidence of potential past life." They insisted the agency will "continue to investigate the best of our ability". The spokesman added: "During its exploration of the Martian surface, Perseverance has encountered many interesting rock features, and the science team has determined which rocks are worth further investigation, and even sampling, based on all of the available data. "To date, NASA has yet to find any credible evidence of extraterrestrial life. "Our exploration of Mars also has to led to many images that evoke our natural curiosity and creativity of interpretation. 6 "Our science teams spend many hours debating what may have formed these visual features, while bringing to bear all of the additional information afforded by our incredibly outfitted rovers and orbiters. "While the science community continues to theorise these images point to possible crystal growth, Nasa's science missions are working together with a goal to find unmistakable signs of life beyond Earth." It comes after Nasa admitted a mysterious hole on Mars could be harbouring alien life in an extensive network of underground tunnels, From orbit, scientists have captured a deep pit on the Red Planet that looks like it leads underground. The image, titled "An unusual hole in Mars," shows a pockmarked planet that could be hiding tons of subterranean pockets. "There are numerous holes pictured in this Swiss cheese-like landscape, with all-but-one of them showing a dusty, dark, Martian terrain beneath evaporating, light, carbon dioxide ice," Nasa wrote. "The most unusual hole is on the upper right, spans about 100 meters, and seems to punch through to a lower level." It's unclear what caused the hole. Though scientists assume the circular crater that surrounds it suggests it was created by a meteor impact. "Holes such as this are of particular interest because they might be portals to lower levels that extend into expansive underground caves," Nasa explained. "If so, these naturally occurring tunnels are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life. "These pits are therefore also prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers." How long does it take to get to Mars? It's not that short of a trip... There's an immense distance between Earth and Mars, which means any trip to the red planet will take a very long time It's also made more complicated by the fact that the distance is constantly changing as the two planets rotate around the sun The closest that the Earth and Mars would ever be is a distance of 33.9million miles – that's 9,800 times the distance between London and New York That's really rare though: the more useful distance is the average, which is 140million miles Scientists on Earth have already launched a whole bunch of spacecraft to (or near) Mars, so we have a rough idea of how long it takes with current technology Historically, the trip has taken anywhere from 128 to 333 days – admittedly a huge length of time for humans to be on board a cramped spacecraft.
