According to a German scientist, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, NASA destroyed life on Mars 50 years ago when it dispatched two Viking landers to Mars.
According to a New Scientist investigation, a NASA mission over 40 years ago may have accidentally destroyed what would have been the first discovery of organic molecules on Mars.
This view from the Viking 2 shows Utopia Planitia on Mars in 1976. Some researchers think that the Viking lander's main instrument may have burned up organic molecules in collected soil samples. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech )
NASA recently caused quite a stir when it reported that its Curiosity rover has identified organic molecules — the building blocks of life as we know it — on Mars. This follows the discovery of organic compounds on Mars in 2014. However, because small, carbon-rich meteorites bombard Mars so frequently, scientists have speculated for decades that organics exist on Mars. However, researchers were taken aback in 1976 when NASA dispatc...
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