![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBOK_2qP6uc6eLNbzQKdMHRg_4gNbHlcsmIsORmPWgP1w42I_ij8dJvVA3tS50rPN5gZhwN_zQc2KLJG2eyrBJ6mj2hnR4_9n5I7KVsFvY7I5_egQpV4mmd9FEvW0DuXt0t-Wt/s200-rw/hirise_parachute.jpg)
And there is always the remote possibility that Martian microbial life will be discovered. We know that some Earthly bacteria can survive for millennia encased in ice. A few years ago, such bacteria - named Carnobacterium pleistocenium - were discovered in Alaskan Arctic permafrost estimated to be 32,000 years old by NASA astrobiologist Richard Hoover and colleagues.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2IrkZ0qYi96EvWpqJsLFhUQmlYI4qOS2zdsqwTO9rraYFUs2H8IKCDPekWx9h6wyilvLh9nE5sRKqAkdImoZLT4ugRXjOtDBk_AfV-rzVgR7NXoagInjMcfld1X1vAvWkP0s_/s200-rw/050223_bacteria_02.jpg)
Or maybe the lander will find something completely different from life as we know it.
Image - top: Camera on the Mars orbiter caught an image of the Phoenix lander with its parachute open during landing. (How cool is that?!). More Phoenix images.
Image - bottom: Living Carnobacterium pleistocenium bacterium recovered from ancient ice are stained green (via LiveScience). Gor the technical details, see Pikuta et al. (2005).
Tags:science fiction, biology
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