I don't know what it is about Mars but it has always captured the imagination of the human race when it comes to the search for extraterrestrial life. Growing up, pop culture makes us aware that there is such a thing called "Martians" even if they're just fictional.

Even scientific studies have been concentrated on Mars and we have already sent several space probes and rovers scouring every inch of the red planet. Till now we haven't actually found any evidence of life but what we have found is impressive already.

We know that perhaps billions of years ago, Mars had oceans of liquid water just like Earth. In fact, it was recently discovered that even today it has a global groundwater system. Also, ancient organic matter has been found by one of the rovers.

Life as we know it originated from organic compounds and it requires water. The presence of both on Mars could mean that it could have hosted life on it in the past. Now, two more rovers will make their way towards Mars in 2020 and they will drill inside the surface to know more.

Discovery of Life Just Years Away?

NASA's chief scientist, Jim Green, told The Telegraph in a recent interview that he believed we are just years away from finding evidence of life on the planet. Whether it is evidence of present life or past life remains to be seen.

He believes that thanks to the two rovers (European Space Agency's ExoMars Rover and NASA's Mars 2020 rover), which will both be launched in 2020, we could be much closer to finding life on Mars than ever before. Both these rovers will drill into the surface and it's exciting to guess what they'll find.

But he is also terrified of the implications of finding life there. He states that it would start a whole new line of thinking and that we are simply not prepared for such an event.

Finding evidence extraterrestrial life on an alien planet whether alive or dead is definitely going to take the world by a storm which would be talked about for a really long time. One thing is for sure though, it will raise more questions than it will answer. Our whole understanding about life could change!