Science / Medicine : Meteorite Rekindles Life-on-Mars Issue

A meteorite that originated on Mars and landed in Antarctica thousands of years ago apparently contains organic matter and may reopen the debate about life on the red planet. The Viking Lander, which probed surface soils on Mars, had found no evidence of organic chemicals, leading researchers to conclude that life had never arisen there.

British researchers said last week in Nature magazine that their results “constitute the first recognition of organic compounds from Mars.” The team did not speculate whether the organic material they discovered was produced by living creatures or was generated by natural weathering processes, but said the samples should be subjected to more sophisticated tests to learn their precise composition and origin.

But Norman Horowitz, who headed NASA’s biological review of the Viking samples, said that even if the organic matter found by the British team proves to be from Mars, it probably was not produced by plants, animals or any other living creatures since the majority of organic matter in the universe is non-biological in origin.