Academy of Science: Viking Results from Mars Premature

The Viking lander on the Martian surface.

Image: Nasa

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science reports that the Viking data collected on the Martian surface in the 1970s was incomplete. The Viking landers detected no sign of organic life in the alien soil. However, a new study using Vikings' technology in Antarctica, Chile, and Peru also found no life. These geographic settings, similar to the Martian surface, do contain carbon, and newer instruments could detect carbon in these soils. Many scientists now believe the Viking data is flawed, resurrecting the possibility of current life existing on Mars.

--See Sharon Begley, "Earthlings Discover There Might Be Life on Mars After All," The Wall Street Journal (Tuesday, 24 October 2006), B1-B2