Did a Nuclear War Wipe Out Life on Mars?

We are truly living in a mind-blowing era. Think about it: the things we used to read about in science fiction novels are basically just everyday reality now. We've gone from dreaming about the stars to actually landing craft on other celestial bodies. Remember when the idea of a hoverboard was pure fantasy? Now, they exist! Every single one of these breakthroughs, from discovering the building blocks of the universe to sending probes to faraway comets, just invokes this incredible sense of awe and wonder. It makes you realize how quickly we're advancing, and it naturally pushes us toward the biggest, most profound question of all: Are we alone? Is there intelligent, breathing life out there somewhere else in the vast, dark expanse of the cosmos? For me, the answer is a resounding yes. I don't just think there's life out there; I believe there's probably a whole lot of it. My reasoning is simple: the universe is so unbelievably, impossibly ginormous that the odds of Earth being the only successful experiment seem ridiculously low. When you really stop and think about the scale of things, it's humbling. We are literally residing on a tiny, insignificant speck of dust in a cosmic neighborhood that is endless. So, yeah, I'm happy to be a simple woman who accepts that alien civilizations must exist. I don't need NASA or any official hard-and-fast proof to convince me. The sheer, overwhelming size of the universe is proof enough.

The Nuclear War on Mars Theory

A physicist made some seriously wild claims about life on Mars and how it was all tragically destroyed in a nuclear war. Dr. John Brandenburg, who earned his degree at UC Davis, has suggested that Mars was home to two different alien-humanoid civilizations, which he called Cydonia and Utopia. He claims these two societies were wiped out by yet another alien race. He initially made these claims back in 2011, but he's planning to present new research at an American Physical Society meeting soon and publish his findings in the Journal of Cosmology and Astrophysics. Brandenburg points to a couple of key pieces of evidence:

The high concentration of Xenon-129 is found in Mars's atmosphere.

The detected patterns of excess uranium and thorium on the Martian surface are compared to Mars meteorites.

He argues that this combination indicates the Martian surface was the site of massive radiological events, which created large amounts of signature isotopes and coated the surface with a thin, radioactive layer. He concludes that this pattern is best explained by two large nuclear explosions on Mars in the past. Now, other scientists have pushed back. While they agree that the physicist is not technically wrong about the soil analysis, they note that finding high concentrations of Xenon-129 shouldn't be a surprise since it's a commonly found substance. But Brandenburg isn't backing down. He plans to use photos taken by the Mars rover Curiosity to support his claims. He told Vice that "given the large amount of nuclear isotopes in Mars's atmosphere resembling those from hydrogen bomb tests on Earth, Mars may present an example of a civilization wiped out by nuclear attack from space."

What if We Are the Martians?

So, this theory basically sounds like a mashup of Terminator, Mars Attacks, and Independence Day. But I want to throw an even crazier theory out there for you:

What if we are actually the Martians?

Stay with me here. Let's say we were all originally living happily on Mars. Then, a massive alien invasion and nuclear blast forced us to abandon the planet and head to two other worlds. Some of us came to Earth, and others went somewhere else. Maybe the spaceships that brought the Earth-bound group crashed. We lost all our technology and literally had to start over from scratch. That could totally happen, right? And maybe, just maybe, that's why we're so incredibly obsessed with Mars! Wouldn't that be wild? All this time, we're investigating Mars, looking for signs of life, when the whole time, we came from there. Let me know if you buy the theory that Mars was completely destroyed by a nuclear war!