Life On Mars?

Martian fossils?

Is there life on Mars? No one knows for sure yet. But in August 1996, scientists announced that they had found what they believed to be fossils of tiny microbes in a meteorite from Mars.

Wow! Life on the Red Planet! We are not alone! Or are we?

Mars researchers working to keep their theory alive

What led these scientists to think that they had evidence of life in a potato-sized rock from Mars that crash-landed on Earth thousands of years ago?

They found chemicals and molecules buried in the meteorite that we know can be made by living things.

They found carbon, a basic element of life, deep in the rock.

They found squiggles and blobs that look like the fossils of tiny bacteria found on Earth.

But other scientists took a look at the evidence and disagreed.

They said the molecules and chemicals could have seeped into the meteorite from the surrounding Antarctic ice.

The "fossils" in the meteorite could have been made by chemical processes that have nothing to do with life.

The "fossils" are too small, even smaller than the tiniest bacteria on Earth.

So who's right and who's wrong? Is there evidence of extraterrestrial life or not? Right now, the most widely accepted idea is that the meteorite does NOT harbor the remains of ancient Martian life. But the final answer is still up in the air. Scientists continue to do research to try to answer these questions.

This story is a good example of the scientific process at work. Scientists come up with hypotheses (high-poth-uh-seas) or possible explanations for something they are studying. Other researchers test and retest these hypotheses and form new ones. It can take many years to answer a scientific question. Some questions still have no answers, only educated guesses.

Related link on this story:

NASA page on life on Mars