"Oops" Doesn't Quite Cut It
So it turns out maybe we found life on Mars. And killed it:
Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have found alien microbes on the red planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist is theorizing.
The Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life, so they didn't recognize it, a geology professor at Washington State University said.
The Viking probes were looking for salt-water based life such as we have here on Earth. The theory is that life on Mars is actually based on a water / hydrogen peroxide mix. The tests would not only have missed finding such life, they would have killed it.
Live and learn, I guess. I certainly hope we don't make any similar mistakes in our search for intelligent life.
Via GeekPress.
Comments
Emphasis on may have and theory I think.
We won't know until we go there and try it with experiments that will detect the theorized life.
Posted by: bdunbar![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.blog.speculist.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
January 12, 2007 11:54 AM