Scientists Found Evidence of Fungus Growing on Mars - Interesting Engineering

On Mars, most life from Earth would not survive — but microbes like the black mold fungus might survive on the Red Planet's surface for a substantial timeframe.

While we're not slamming the "life on Mars" button — the black fungi-bacteria-like specimens also appeared atop the rovers that took the images.

On Earth, black arctic "araneiforms" can grow up to 300 meters in the spring, vanishing by winter — in a repeating pattern of huge emerging colonies of black fungi, lichens, mold, algae, methanogens, and other sulfur-reducing species — which might serve as an Earth-based comparison for potential life-forms discovered on Mars.

Comparative statistical analysis of nine spherical fungi-like specimens — which look like fungal "puffballs" and were photographed on (Earth day, "Sol") 1,145, and another 12 fungi-like specimens that appeared to emerge from beneath the soil on Sol 1,148 revealed that nine grew substantially closer in distance as their respective diameters grew.

A year ago, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover discovered organic compounds called thiophenes on the Red Planet — hinting at the potential for early life on Mars.