A recent study has found evidence that roughly 3.5 billion years ago, there was an ocean on Mars that stretched hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Cool. But why should we care?
I will tell you why. This could be a hint of life other than that which is on our beautiful earth.
Do you remember as a kid looking at the sky, wondering if anyone else was looking at it with you? Or was that just me? Anyways, the sheer magnitude of the universe we live in might just feel bigger now because we may be sharing it with others.
Evidence of oceans has been found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa and there are signs that there once were oceans on Venus. These signs of water mean that hydrogen and oxygen existed at one point on these moons and maybe on a planet in our solar system. If these elements existed, why couldn’t life?
As we have learned more about the planets and moons that orbit our sun, we have discovered ice, the thing that buries Europa and Enceladus. Due to this ice, we do not know what is underneath, it could be plain, moonlike rock or more evidence of life outside of earth.
Looking at this topic from the Catholic perspective, we believe that our entire universe was created by one God, a God who created the stars, planets, moons and what inhabited the stars planets and moons. Would our God just create life on one single planet, with one truly intelligent group of live beings or would He spread life to more places than one?
Why would God create things necessary for life, water and oxygen, on other planets and moons? Did He once create life on these planets far before we had a chance to discover it? If this is true, why?
If we as students at a Catholic university accept Catholic teachings, how are we to interpret this? Do we see it as life that died out, such as the dinosaurs? Do we see it as an empire lost to the hands of time, such as the Mayans? Did life in outer space fall out of God’s favor and was flooded like the human race in the time of Noah?
This new discovery leaves a lot to be questioned and even more to be answered. Was there life outside of our earth or was there just water on a floating rock? I am not an astronomer, do not ask me. I guess we will just have to wait and see what the experts find in the coming centuries. A very recent study has found evidence that roughly 3.5 billion years ago, there was an ocean on Mars that stretched hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Cool. But why should we care?
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