Scientists have been working to spot signs of life on Mars, and some scientists believe that life can be spotted on pictures of Mars if they look closely. However, this is a controversial topic that is unlikely to be confirmed until humans set foot on the Red Planet or samples of life on Mars are returned to Earth.
Some scientists believe that fossilized sponges, corals, eggs, algae, fungi, lichens, shrimp, crabs, sea spiders, scorpions and translucent millipedes have been found in photos of Mars.
Their theory is largely based on intriguing images from NASA rovers that have been on the surface of Mars for the past 26 years. Many of the "fossils" were taken inside Gale Crater, a large impact basin near the equator that once could have been a large lake.
The presumed fossils seen in the Mars images are very similar to those found in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies, a 500-million-year-old fossil enrichment layer, the researchers said.
Last month, a group of researchers published four peer-reviewed papers in journals laying out their reasons for believing there is evidence for life on Mars.
"We have pictures of fungi growing out of the ground, larger and larger in size and more in number, which is based on continuous images." Dr. Rudolph Schild of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) spoke on behalf of the researchers.
"Imagine if you saw some of these specimens growing in your backyard or in your bathtub, wouldn't you spend a lot of time investigating? Call in an expert, take a picture from all angles, try tapping it and see what happens? Shelder explained.
He added that they had posted photos of cyanobacteria growing, a series of unusual specimens that were originally in the hole and grew outside the cave two days later.
There also seems to be evidence of microbes, a rocky underwater structure that looks like a coral reef but is made up entirely of millions of microbes. A new paper, published in Applied Cell Biology, argues that translucent cocoon-like eggs, less than a millimeter in diameter, with a hole at one end, some of which appear to have "unrecognizable specimens" in and out.
The fungus "Puffball" and specimens attached to rocks with mushroom-like caps have also been observed in a crater "Meridiani Planum" slightly north of the equator.
All authors of the recent paper are convinced that fossil evidence proves that life once existed on Mars, and even that they may still thrive today. But not everyone agrees.
Dr. Vincenzo Rizzo of the Department of Geology at Italy's National Research Council believes claims about fungal growth or spider-like matter are "hardly credible."
I think that so far, the existence of microbial structures and algae fossils should be considered definitive", he said, "but what about living organisms? I only saw rocks". Rizzo said he had a lot of questions about statements about spiders and the like, including the so-called mushroom.
To find out if life exists on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover is currently drilling in Jezero Crater, an ancient Martian lake, with samples set to return to Earth in 2033.
China's plans to bring Mars samples back to Earth in the early 2130s, while billionaire Elon Musk's plans to send humans to Mars by 2029, could speed up the pace of solving the mystery.
A new study by Chilean researchers suggests that the rover could miss signs of life if no way to improve detection is found. Because current technology can't even find all the signs of life on Earth's surface, let alone on Mars.
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