It's Mars.
It's a very recent picture of Mars. It's significance is those rusty streaks fanning out at bottom. The experts theorize that they are evidence of water, the current, evanescent flow of water on the surface of Mars. And the significance of that is water is the great solvent of life; wherever water has been found on the third rock from the sun there has also been found life. Why not on the fourth rock?
"Are we alone?" is one of the great existential questions although maybe not as captivating as "Why is there Helvetica font?" As we homos have explored our heavenly neighborhood we have found other compelling evidence of water, most tantalizingly on Europa, and we have found other planets outside our 'hood, of roughly the same size and distance from their stars as Earth is from the Sun. Why should there not be life there too?
We will shortly find out if there is water on Mars. This astrogeologist believes that in his lifetime we will also find life on Mars. If we do, that life will not be "intelligent" as we homos term it; it will likely be simple, single-celled organisms like Columbia University professor Edward Mendelson. If we do find life on Mars, the discovery will be the greatest in mankind's history.
