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When -- or if -- NASA finds life on Mars, "The world may not be ready for the discovery", the agency chief says
By Scottie Andrew
NASA's next mission to Mars will be its most advanced yet. But if scientists discover there was once life -- or there is life -- on the Red Planet, will the public be able to handle such an extraterrestrial concept?
NASA chief scientist Jim Green doesn't think so.
"It will be revolutionary," Green told the Telegraph. "It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don't think we're prepared for the results. We're not."
The agency's Mars 2020 rover, set to launch next summer, will be the first to collect samples of Martian material to send back to Earth. But if scientists discover biosignatures of life in Mars' crust, the findings could majorly rock astrobiology, said Green, the director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA
"What happens next is a whole new set of scientific questions," he said. "Is that life like us? How are we related?"
The Mars 2020 rover, along with the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover, will drill into the Martian crust. The surface of the Red Planet is believed to be radioactive, so if there is life on Mars, it likely lives below ground.
"We've never drilled that deep," he told the Telegraph. "When environments get extreme, life moves into the rocks."
The principle's been proven on our home planet: After drilling miles into the Earth, researchers found more life in the Earth's crust than on its surface, he said.
"The bottom line is, where there is water there is life."
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