Proof for Life on Mars?

Are we alone in the universe?It seems difficult to believe that the universe could be such a big place and yet we on earth are the only living beings in it.  Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t.  Scientists have long looked for signs of past or present life on our nearest neighbour, Mars, by looking for the essential ingredient to life as we know it: water.

Hematite has long been associated with Mars.   Two thousand years ago, hematite was the stone of the Roman god, Mars, probably because of its association with blood (borrowed from the ancient Greeks).  Nowadays, Mars and hematite are hot topics because scientists have found hematite on Mars.  In face, they say that hematite is responsible for making the red planet red.

Hematite: the stone of BLOOD

hematite (or haematite) is easily identifiable as a heavy, cold and mirror-like grey/silver stone.  That is actually red.  We know that it’s red because it leaves red streaks and because when it is ground down it becomes a red powder, known as rouge (because it’s red, don’tcha know?)