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Question
Even though there is proof of water on Mars, is it still possible for life to exist on Mars with the atmosphere consisting of mostly carbon dioxide?
Life does not need an oxygen atmosphere. For the first two billion years of life's history on Earth, carbon dioxide was probably the major constituent of our atmosphere, along with nitrogen, and there was no oxygen in the atmosphere. The problem with the martian surface environment is not the carbon dioxide atmosphere or the lack of oxygen, but the low temperature, lack of liquid water, and intense ultraviolet radiation from the unfiltered sunlight.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
May 17, 2004
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