It was then that the ice caps had been observed at each pole and they would shrink and expand with the Martian seasons.
So, it had water, or at least ice, and although smaller and further from the sun than the earth, life was quite possible. Especially in early history when it would have been warmer.
A frenzy of speculation erupted 130 years ago when it was reported that canals could be seen on the surface of the planet.
HG Wells wrote the book The War of the Worlds, which further entranced and alarmed the public about the possibility of life there. Especially when the radio adaption aired, and folk took it to be a newscast about a Martian invasion.
Subsequently with better telescopes, the canal theory was put to bed.
A large amount of effort and cost has gone into sending probes and rovers to Mars to try and uncover the evidence to back this proposition of life there.
There have been tantalising clues that life might have existed but as yet nothing conclusive.
But they are still looking. The Curiosity rover is still wandering around and there are several more missions on their way to the Red Planet, or planned.
Then the news last week that no one was expecting.
It was a surprise because it concerns Venus and nobody in their right mind would think you could have life on Venus.
It is a planet with greenhouse induced global warming on massive steroids.
The atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide, the atmospheric pressure is 92 times that of Earth at sea level and it has a surface temperature of 500 degrees Celsius.
It is one inhospitable planet.
So, there has been no speculation about life there or any fear of imminent invasion by Venusians.
But astronomers have just reported detecting a rare molecule called Phosphine in that hellish acidic atmosphere of Venus in relatively abundant amounts.
Phosphine gas on earth can only be made by life forms.
It’s a nasty gas and was used in WW1 as a chemical weapon and is used as an agricultural fumigant.
The hypothesis at this point is that microbes living high in the ever-present clouds of Venus have found themselves a niche and are busy doing whatever it is that Venetians like to do.
New Zealand-based Rocket Lab has been planning their own mission to Venus scheduled for 2023 to look for signs of life, and this was before the phosphine discovery.
Other solar system candidates for life include three of Jupiter’s moons – Calisto, Ganymede and Europa – and Saturn’s moons – Titan and Enceladus.
Outside of our solar system, there have now been over 4000 planets orbiting other stars discovered and 30 years ago we knew of none.
With 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone and 100 billion galaxies in the universe, the odds that there is other life out there (but not as we know it, Jim) is astronomical. It has to be there but with such vast distances, will we ever find out?
So, why all this interest and fascination about life on worlds other than Earth?
Because the confirmation of this would shake to the core science, religion and the way we humans think of ourselves.
For as long as we have been able to think, we’ve liked to believe we are special and outside of nature.
Religions have specifically taught that.
Galileo is an example of someone who got into big trouble with the Catholic Church when he pointed out that it was the earth going around the sun along with the planets, rather than the whole of the universe circling around us. He was convicted for heresy for that view. Four hundred years later, the church has nearly gone as far as saying he was right, but not quite.
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was set up 30 years ago and has been listening for signals that an intelligent lifeform might have sent.
On the other hand, we have been broadcasting ourselves to the universe as our radio and television signals have radiated out to more than 100 light years around us and might have been picked up by the very aliens we are listening out for.
My own show, The Cockies Hour, has now travelled 25 light years and with 100-star systems within that distance, who knows what they are making of that?
If SETI tomorrow announced definite proof of an alien signal from an advanced civilisation, all news of covid-19, the NZ election, Trump, and the economy would be consigned to the back pages.
At least for a few days.
