By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | July 12, 2018 04:40pm ET
In the late 1970s, two Viking robots sailed to Mars, pillaged the soil and burnt any traces of life they found.
That was never the plan, of course. When NASA first landed the twin spacecraft named Viking 1 and Viking 2 on the surface of Mars 40 years ago, scientists were ecstatic to finally start studying Martian soil for signs of organic (carbon-based) molecules that could prove the Red Planet was hospitable for life. It should've been a slam-dunk mission. The pockmarked face of Mars was constantly being pelted with tiny, carbon-rich meteorites, after all — detecting signs of that carbon was thought to have been a sure thing.
But it wasn't. After half a decade of studying the planet, neither of the Viking landers could find any evidence of organic matter. Why not? NASA's Curiosity rover confirmed the presence of organic molecules on Mars earlier this year, so what was Viking missing?
A new paper, published June 20 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, provides an explanation. The carbon was there all along, the researchers wrote; unfortunately, the Viking landers set it all on fire. [7 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space]
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https://www.livescience.com/63048-proof-of-mars-life-accidentally-burned.html
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