Protection from small aliens

Mars Universe Space

Search for extraterrestrial organisms: Whether humans will ever land on Mars is still a long way off, but this is planned before 2050. One of the most important research questions here: Did the Red Planet once produce life – and does it perhaps still harbor it? Robots are already looking for it. It is all the more important not to inadvertently bring in bacteria from Earth – not only because they could evade the detection of Mars microbes, but also because they could pose a devastating threat to the ecosystem of our neighboring world.
© Illustration: NASA

Planetary protectors don't just want to keep alien organisms off Earth. They also protect other celestial bodies from earthly stowaways.

by KAI DURFELD

There is only one place in the universe that we know that life exists there: our earth. But the search in space has only just begun. And some celestial bodies are known where the conditions could be favorable, or at least once were. For example, Mars: It used to have liquid water and may have produced life. Or large moons in Jupiter and Saturn: Under their thick ice shells there are probably huge oceans that still exist

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