were probably once asteroids that were captured by MarsΓÇÖs gravita- tional field.
Perhaps the most interesting question about Mars is whether it is now or ever was host to life. Today we know that Percival Lowell was wrong about a race of intelligent Martians and, although it is still a matter of some debate, most scientists believe that tests performed by the Viking Martian landers offer strong evidence that there is no life in the form of microbes or similar organisms on the planet.
The strongest suggestions that life might have existed in the past come from surface formations which imply that water was once present outside the polar regions in substantial enough quantities to
