By Luca Giannini – 12 Z

Professor Brian Cox Leads Star Panel In Worlds Biggest Streamed Discussion About Life On Mars  - and I was there!

‘Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets, and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours, regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us’ – HG Wells, The War Of The Worlds

It’s been the subject that’s fascinated humans for centuries, from The War of the Worlds by HG Wells right through to pop music by David Bowie and T.Rex, and TV series by Professor Brian Cox….is there life on Mars, and is an invasion something we should fear?  Now for 2025, the alien phenomenon has never been more relevant.  Scientists have recently discovered water on Mars, even beaches, we’ve learnt that oxygen doesn’t require photosynthesis, and even more exciting, Elon Musk joins the Space Race, as he pledges to hit Mars with Space X.  The chances of anything coming from mars are a million to one – but will they come?  I attended the filming of the world’s biggest ever all-star streamed YouTube discussion to find out more…..

Some of the heavy-weights of the Mars debate were in attendance to thrash-out the probability of life existing on our red planet.  I met with Professor Brian Cox, Dave Rowntree the drummer from Blur, Jeff Wayne composer of The War of the Worlds album, Rou Reynolds front man of Enter Shikari, Professor Mark McCaughrean from the Max Planck Institute and Senior Scientific Advisor for the European Space Agency (retired) and Natural History Museum planetary scientist Professor Sara Russell.  Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have expected to have been in the same room with all of these phenomenal people.  When the conversation and filming began, everyone set the room alight as they shared their views on why mankind is so obsessed with the planet Mars.

Jeff Wayne even announced to everyone for the first time ever that he became an asteroid last month, with NASA naming an asteroid 55863 Jeffwayne (1997 OM2).  Dave Rowntree, the drummer of Blur  explained how he’d worked on the Beagle 2 Mars Mission, and that the chances of life being, or having been on Mars as some point in solar history, is not as out of this world as we may have once thought. Whilst Professor Brian Cox explained that the early photos that showed Mars being void of life, were more about the poor photo quality than the quality of the planet!

Brian Cox commented, “Is There Life on Mars? We are now reasonably certain that the conditions for life to exist were present on Mars around 4 billion years ago, when life began on Earth. And, for the first time, we have a plan to return samples from below the Martian surface to Earth for analysis - the Mars sample return mission. However - I have to say that even though the discovery of life on Mars would be one of the greatest in history, I don’t expect to go to war with the Martians. They will be microbes at best. But, then again, I could be wrong …. The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, I said..."

Fusing space and the planets, with rock stars and mars discussions of cosmic proportions; I can honestly say that the energy was electrifying, but did they conclude that there’s life on Mars?  Well, discover for yourself, because you can watch the discussion on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@twotwofficial