Mars - Has it ever held life?

Every since the foundation of NASA scientists have been trying to answer that question. While there is, today, mounting evidence that Mars was once very similar to Earth with an Oxygen rich atmosphere, liquid water filled lakes, oceans and waterways and even some salt water and water/ice still present today; they have yet to find any definitive proof of Life on Mars (in the past or present). Or have they and just don't realize it?

One of the, if not the most, intriguing things we have found on Mars is the massive amount of Black Holes all over the planet that look (or resemble) the one shown below:

Source: A Hole in Mars

While there are countless theories as to how/what formed the holes I am going to postulate my own theory. First though, lets go over what we know about these black holes on Mars.

• There are hundreds, if not thousands, of them with more being discovered all the time.
• There are no signs of impact craters around a single one of the black holes
• Many (but no where near all) of the black holes have frozen CO² around them
• None of the black holes has a Visible Bottom
• None of the black holes reflect light in any way.....the seem to absorb light as it doesn't matter what position the Sun is in relation the black holes all the sides are black
• They all vary in size with the smallest being around 10 feet in diameter and the largest being approximately 1000 feet in diameter
• Everyone of them is perfectly (or damn near it) round
• They are found from the south pole of Mars all over the planet (except the north pole which is covered in a glacier of ice)

Scientists have repeatedly been trying to explain these black hole since they were first detected decades ago by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from NASA and later the European Express Orbiter from the ESA. However, every single theory proposed to date has rapidly fallen apart as a viable theory. Which is where I come in.....I have thought about this long and hard, studied the various holes and formed my own theory; which I can't prove or disprove and most likely no one else can either.....at least not until we have "boots on the ground" - actually humans on Mars to conduct research and investigate.

So what is my theory? Well we know:

• Mars is older than Earth and prior to a few billion years ago was most likely very similar to Earth today
• Mars has an atmosphere that is slowly fading into space but 2 billion years ago would have been capable of supporting all manner of life (as we know it)
• Numerous Martian meteors (meteorites) found on Earth have shown structures inside that strongly resemble fossilized bacteria similar to what exists on Earth today.

Having said that is it much of a leap of faith to believe that MARS ONCE HELD INTELLIGENT LIFE? Granted it was likely 2-10 billion years ago but, in my mind anyway, absolutely possible. Now lets play with that theory a bit. If Mars was once inhabited by a sentient race of beings with sufficient technological advancement that they detected their planet was dying what would they do? Well they would GTFO there, right? That sounds easier than it is though so they would have had to:

• Build/Use space ships to scout for a new home
• Survive long enough to find a new home (or new homes)
• Build enough space ships to relocate their entire civilization to other places
• Find enough raw materials and resources on their dying planet to successfully survive and evacuate Mars

Lets assume that if a sentient race did exist on Mars billions of years ago that was technologically advanced enough to detect their planet was dying they most likely had already been in space and probably already explored parts of if not all of our solar system. So Build/Use space ships to scout for a new home was probably done long before their planet began to die. However, depending on how rapidly the planet's surface deteriorated they most likely would have been forced Under Ground to survive long enough to Evacuate. Not to mention that they would not have had enough raw materials on/near the surface to build the armada of ships needed to evacuate their entire population. Thus meaning they would have had to dig deep into the planet, in numerous locations in order to:

• Find the raw materials needed to construct an armada of ships
• Survive while they built the ships needed to evacuate

So, if intelligent life existed on Mars billions of years ago that would explain how so many black holes formed. It would also explain why the walls of those holes do not reflect light because they would have not only mined resources they needed from deep beneath the surface but would have refined those resources below ground with the black holes being exhaust vents for all the gases released from the refining process as well as from the beings themselves and animals they moved under ground. Highly concentrated CO2, Carbon Deposits and other stuff we know of today do not reflect light and would explain the uniform blackness around everyone of these holes. Additionally, the varying sizes of the holes is easily explained by:

• Access shafts for people only need to be about 10 feet wide; as would ventilation shafts for underground cities, processing plants and refineries.
• Access shafts for equipment/supplies moved under ground would be larger
• Access shafts for finished ships to exit from underground and leave Mars would need to be much much larger

The more I think about this the more I realize we, as the human race, aren't asking the correct question. We shouldn't be asking "HAS THERE EVER BEEN LIFE ON MARS". We should be asking:

• Where did they life on Mars go when they left the planet?
• Did any Martians remain on Mars after the evacuation and if so did any of them survive deep underground until now?
• How soon can we get manned explorers on Mars to descend into these black holes and find proof of my theory?

Now lets look back at our Solar System 2 billion years ago and what do we see:

• Earth had just formed solid land and oceans but there was very little in the way of complex life on the planet so probably would not have been suitable relocation for Martians
• Venus and Mercury would have been way way to hot and inhospitable for relocation of Martians
• Jupiter might have been a good candidate for relocation of Martians. We know that the atmosphere of Jupiter is full of Greenhouse Gases which based on current understanding only form where there is complex life and industrialization.
• Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto would have been too far from the sun to support any life other than microbes, bacteria and the most basic forms of life.
• Near by solar systems, as well as other galaxies are teaming with Earth Like planets that could have also served as new homes for Martians.
• It is possible that places like Earth, the Kuiper Belt and other objects in our Solar System could have served as temporary colonies (Martians living aboard space ships landed on the surface) while they mined resources to reach distant solar systems/galaxies

Now my for my personal opinion and thoughts.

• I whole heartedly believe that sentient life developed in this solar system long before Humanity came into existence.
• I whole heartedly believe that some of that life went extinct millions or billions of years ago.
• I whole heartedly believe that sentient life existed on Mars 2 billion or so years ago and that most of that sentient life left Mars for other solar systems or galaxies 2 billion years ago.
• I whole heartedly believe that some of the sentient life on Mars 2 billion years ago staid on the planet in massive underground cities and that over the last 2 billion years have evolved and adapted (either naturally or through genetic manipulation) into beings that resemble "the greys" and still exist deep underground on Mars today.
• I believe that ancient Martians (2 billion+ years ago) visited/mined Earth and other objects in this solar system.
• I believe that there is, to this day, sentient life on (or in) Mars and that they possess the ability to:
  a) Mess with/destroy our landers, probes, etc. as well as modify the data being sent from them back to Earth
  b) Travel to Earth (whenever they damn well please) to observe us, gather supplies and resources and possibly other stuff at their discretion
  c) Travel throughout the solar system, the Milky Way Galaxy and possibly other galaxies at speeds we currently deem to be Impossible....whether they do it by traveling faster than the speed of light, or bend space to shorten the distance or have found/developed worm holes I don't have a clue

What are your thoughts?