No life on Mars...yet
News reports last week indicated that scientists had found methane on Mars—a chemical that usually indicates life. However,
NASA says it ain't so.
"News reports on February 16, 2005, that NASA scientists from Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., have found strong evidence that life may exist on Mars are incorrect.
"NASA does not have any observational data from any current Mars missions that supports this claim. The work by the scientists mentioned in the reports cannot be used to directly infer anything about life on Mars, but may help formulate the strategy for how to search for martian life. Their research concerns extreme environments on Earth as analogs of possible environments on Mars. No research paper has been submitted by them to any scientific journal asserting martian life."
One of the scientists cited in the earlier, incorrect news report, Dr. Carol Stroker, gives her version of events.
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New Scientist has some new information about methane on Mars. It seems to say that NASA scientists found a big area on Mars that is emitting more methane than anywhere else on the planet.
Scientists think methane might be a big indicator of life. There aren't many other known processes that produce methane. However, as NASA said, this is a far cry from being able to say, "We know there is life on Mars."
You know, Chuck Norris has already been to Mars. That's why scientists cannot find any life there.
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