Caution Urged on NASA's Mars Life Claim

Last week, we reported that a news report said that two NASA scientists had announced at a private space event that they had found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars. The response was immediate, both from the "true believers" who felt vindicated and from the skeptics.

In our own forum, alokmohan wrote, "Todays about com gives spacecom article on life in mars. NASA and space.com has told it so many times, they have lost credibility. Both are saving jobs. At the time of curtailment of budget something new required. Simply on research of a scientist they say so many things."

As much as I am interested in learning of life outside our own atmosphere, I have urged caution over too much enthusiasm. It appears these NASA scientists are basing their claims on the discovery of methane and not any direct proof of life. While methane may be a biproduct of life, it should be noted that life may not be the only possible explanation for the existence of methane.

The only way to conclusively prove the existence of life on Mars is to view the living organism. The only way to do that would be for us to actually go to Mars. That, in itself, has its own problems, not the least of which are the logistics of such a trip.

However, if there is life on Mars and it's bacterial or viral in nature, caution would seem to be called for. After all, remember how the Martians were stopped in "War of the Worlds"?

As I was writing this, I received a press release from NASA which at least puts the debate on hold for a while. It states:

"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."

Was this a publicity stunt, an error in communications, or perhaps over-enthusiastic researchers "jumping the gun?" I don't know that we'll get an answer to that question, but I'm willing to wait for the right answer.