Martian Soil May Contain Life

[troutman]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/0...eut/index.html

The soil on Mars may contain microbial life, according to a new interpretation of data first collected more than 30 years ago.

The search for life on Mars appeared to hit a dead end in 1976 when Viking landers touched down on the red planet and failed to detect biological activity.

But Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, Germany, said on Friday the spacecraft may in fact have found signs of a weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface.

His analysis of one of the experiments carried out by the Viking spacecraft suggests that 0.1 percent of the Martian soil could be of biological origin.

That is roughly comparable to biomass levels found in some Antarctic permafrost, home to a range of hardy bacteria and lichen.

[Azure]

All these new overlords are becoming a pain in the arse to keep track of.

[Neeper]

Good and about time. Hopefully the microbs are similiar to Earth's to solidify the theory of panspermia.

[Cliche]

I for one welcome our new Hydrogen Peroxide based overlords. I see a strong future in hair coloring.

[RW99]

With all this talk and articles about 'may contain' water and life, I think I need an actual image of something 'out of this world' for me to get excited now.