Mars Attracts

Scott Hardie | July 24, 2016
Say that recognizeable animal life existed on Mars in high quantity. This would require at least some vegetation and water.

1) When would we have discovered this life?

2) What effect would this have had on life here on Earth by now?

Samir Mehta | July 24, 2016
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | August 7, 2016
I suspect we'd have known a lot earlier, or at least guessed it a lot earlier. We have known for some time how to read the spectrum of light reaching us from a distant planet to deduce what elements are present in its atmosphere. Percival Lowell was so obsessed with studying lines visible on the surface of Mars (he thought they were alien-made canals) that he built a massive telescope to see Mars in the 1800s. We would have known about the water and vegetation first, and getting a spacecraft to Mars to see animals up close would have been a higher priority given the known conditions there. I'd guess that we'd have, if not photographs, then some form of proof of the animal life no later than 1950.

Maybe I'm cynical, but as much as I think the discovery of recognizeable, relatable alien life would be a world-unifying, Kumbaya moment for humanity, I think the moment would pass and we'd go on behaving the way we always have, just with this one additional thing being part of our culture. We would absolutely try to capture some of the Martian beasts and study them, on the Martian surface or possibly even killing and transporting them back to Earth. There would be (probably unrealized) plans drawn up to transport one to Earth alive in a pressurized container with breatheable air. There would be SpaceX-style companies mounting Martian photo safari trips for billionaires. For the rest of us, these creatures would hold a special place in our imagination and culture, similar to deep undersea creatures like giant squids, occupying a space somewhere between the fully real and fully fantastical. Popular culture would cover them at length.