But see Another Viewpoint
My conclusion from all the pictures taken so far is that Mars is a red desert with apparently no living thing present now or at any time in the past. See below. What is life?
However organised chemical structures may be found that could be self-replicating but not life. Life is something that occurs on our wonderful planet Earth.
There is photographic evidence for green patches on many of the rocks and on Earth green means photosynthesis. This is because the photosynthesis on Earth uses two wavelengths of light, one in the blue (the high energy electron) and one in the red (the low energy electron) when these two redox potentials are added together there is just enough reducing potential to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. It is green because green is between red and blue in energy and is not absorbed so the object reflects in the green.
This can occur in non-green systems such as the resulting solution when magnesium is dissolved in a pyridine and water mixture. Here oxygen and hydrogen are given off when light shines on the solution.
Some of the markings in the rocks resemble fossils found on Earth and we will have to wait further exploration before we know if in fact the markings (three examples found on two separate rocks) are fossils.
Some areas on Mars are noticeably green and this has been known for thousands of years. It was decided 8000 years ago when religion was invented that these green markings should be ignored and that people who make the photosynthesis connection would be eliminated, usually by trepanning (now known as a brain frontal lobe lobotomy) and this is practised today.
The planet Mars is quite red so dark areas appear green because of a contrast effect, but by masking off the red areas in a photograph of Mars the dark areas appear green when compared to the white of the mask. Colour metric analysis using the RGB values shows an increased green component in the dark areas whereas the red component is almost unchanged suggesting an increased reflectivity in the green.
This would indicate that a green coloured material was populating the area on Mars.
Mars has been shown to have had a wet past but appears quite dry now. Thus carbon growths may have been more abundant a billion years ago.
But see Another Viewpoint
Chris.
12/06/2004