Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, A: Physics and Space Science, Volume 23 Issue 5

Figure 7: Seasonal Variations in Molecular Oxygen and Methane on Mars consistent with a residual biosphere. Figure adapted from Trainor et al. (2019) VII. S ummary and D icussion In summary: the revised geochronology on Mars, making many terrains, and the water channels on them, date from recent geologic time, requires a persistent CO 2 greenhouse on Mars. In order to have persistent greenhouse without formation of massive carbonate deposits, one requires massive amounts of persistent free oxygen. The source for this oxygen must be biology, due to the fact that free oxygen blocks the UV required for photolysis, thus making abiotic oxygen production self limiting. Photosynthesis, from biology that would thrive in a warm-wet greenhouse environment on Mars, is self-feeding and thus would thus overwhelm any abiotic photolytic mechanism for generating oxygen. Accordingly, biology explains what is found on Mars, a highly oxidized surface, dominated by hematite, with liquid water channels on terrains of all ages, and a paleo-ocean bed, on the recently resurfaced northern plains. This is The New Mars Synthesis, drawn from the vast store of Mars. Lunar and Terrestrial data now available from a variety of sources. Mars was apparently the home of a Gaia, as Earth has been. Sadly, the fragility of life, due to dramatic changes in environment induced by outside events, also explains the present state of Mars, as a site of a mass extinction event, like those seen on Earth, but far more severe. The evidence for a residual biosphere still producing small amounts methane and free oxygen is consistent with this scenario. Therefore, the main features of Mars past and present can be explained by a past Gaia scenario. The key to understanding Mars climatic evolution is therefore biology, possibly leading, ironically, to paralysis in the scientific investigation of that planet. If NASA, is in fact, “biophobic”, in unspoken policies even while giving public lip-service to the search for life, then suggestions of past biosphere on Mars become “forbidden” in a “conspiracy of silence” in the Mars community. Suspicion of an unspoken policy against finding evidence of life is reinforced by the reluctance of NASA to repeat, with improved technologies, Stoker (2023), the life experiments of Viking, in 1976, even after a half-century, and despite many opportunities. However, that is the past, let us look to the future. We can understand Mars past by understanding that was alive. This conclusion can be tested by more data from Mars, conducted by scientists not afraid to find evidence of life and publish it. That this understanding may mean a deeper mystery in the universe as a whole is something we must, as a people, face boldly. If a past Gaia on the Red Planet is confirmed, this answers deep questions on Mars, but it raises profound questions about the cosmos and our place in it, chief of which is Fermi’s Paradox. If our Solar System hosted two vigorous biospheres then this indicates biology is a common phenomena in the universe. Such a lively cosmos would be expected to betray itself by leading to noisy intelligent species such as ourselves in nearby stellar systems. However, the nearby universe is as quiet as a ghost town. However, we must press ahead boldly. In particular, the reason for a Mars mass extinction, destroying the Gaia that existed there, should be urgently investigated, in order to ensure it does not happen here. © 2023 Global Journals 1 Year 2023 38 Global Journal of Science Frontier Research Volume XXIII Issue ersion I VV ( A ) The New Mars Synthesis: Circumstantial Evidence of a Past Persistent Gaia on the Red Planet A cknowledgements The author wishes to thank Brent Nels on, Jason Dvorkin, Michael Smith, and the La te Paul Murad of Kepler A ero space LTD for the ir support and encoura geme nt of this research.