Mars Trees

by Mirko Elviro

The possibility of existence of life forms on other planets has always charmed men. But only in fairly recent times the means with which we can explore celestial bodies in a scientific manner have become available. Countless probes have been launched toward planets belonging to our solar system, to study their characteristics and to understand if any form of life may have developed on them. Among planets, Mars is still the more studied planet, both for the proximity to the Earth and mainly because it is the most Earth-similar celestial body and maybe it's able to receive any type of living organism.

There's an opinion shared among scientists by now that says that if we'll find life on Mars, it surely won't have an evolutionary stage higher than the one of a bacterium. It's an opinion that has become a dogma with the passing of time, supported even in the presence of photographic documents, still without explanation, that could invalidate it.

It's the case of a photo taken by MOC (Mars Orbiter Camera), a satellite for photographical mapping of Mars that, at latitude -82.02°, longitude 284.38° (near to the Martian south pole) has filmed something totally incredible, but still neglected: it's some form of vegetation on Mars.
The photo number is M08-04688.

Detail of photo M08-04688 taken by MOC satellite that depicts the Mars surface (6.79 m/pixel)

As one can see in the image, shapes very similar to big trees (with branches) seen by above are visible.

For example, let's compare the MOC shot with this other photo, that portrays a terrestrial tree: there are really many similarities.

Here's the complete "strip" taken by MOC, that shows plants becoming more and more thick, actually creating a forest. A geological phenomenon vaguely similar to this doesn't quite exists. The high resolution photo is visible by clicking here (259Kb)

Click here for another photo showing vegetation on Mars (646 Kb)