Is there extraterrestrial life at Oxia Planum - Mars?

Two major European and Russian space agencies have revealed plans to "attack" a region on Mars, where they believe it is possible to find traces of extraterrestrial life.

ESA (European Space Agency) and Roscosmos (a Russian space agency) have just released details of a bold plan called "ExoMars 2020" directed to Oxia Planum , a mysterious land of Mars.

Close-up Oxia Planum - (photo: ESA).

Remote surveys show that Oxia Planum is an ancient rich land, where many canals are plentiful. Many data show that a giant mass of water once dominated here billions of years ago.

Oxia Planum soil contains a lot of clay-rich minerals and scientists believe this land is one of the highest chances of having extraterrestrial life - at least ancient life. In addition, another mysterious land quite close to Oxia Planum, named Mawrth Vallis is also targeted.

The location of the two suspected areas of life is marked on the surface of Mars - (photo: ESA).

ExoMars 2020 scientists are in the process of sprinting so that a modern exploration device called ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter can be present on a Proton-M missile on August 13, 2020. ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter will land on the red planet in March 2021.

Map showing the topography of the two lands suspected to possess life - (photo: ESA).

According to scientist Jorge Vago, representative of ExoMars 2020, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is designed to focus on tracing bio-signals that they believe are the early colonies of Oxia Planum rich in water from billions. years ago.

The details are only part of the plan, recently revealed at the ESA and Roscosmos major meetings at the National Center in Leister, England.