Those of us who live here know the Earth’s surface is teeming with life. But if an outsider dropped a probe at random and scooped up a few handfuls of dirt — and their probe happened to land in the Chilean desert — they might conclude that the Blue Planet is a lifeless rock. Now a group of Mexican scientists say this is what we Earthlings may have done with Mars. The scientists took soil from some of the Earth’s most arid places and used it to repeat the experiments done by the 1976 Viking probe, which sifted the Martian sands for signs of life. The experiments concluded that these places — actually home to numerous organisms — were devoid of life. The scientists’ conclusion? There may not be life on Mars, but if there is, we missed it.
Source: Viking Mission May Have Missed Life on Mars, Study Finds. National Geographic News, October 23.
