Former NASA Scientist Is ‘Convinced’ We’ve Already Found Evidence of Life on Mars – ScienceAlert

Now we have spent decades and billions of bucks to answer to 1 straightforward ask: is there lifestyles on Mars?

But per an understanding portion for Scientific American by ragged NASA scientist Gilbert Levin, we can even already have realized we’re not alone within the Universe all thru an experiment Levin led for NASA’s Viking mission to Mars in 1976.

NASA despatched two separate Viking orbiter and lander pairs to the Red Planet to conduct experiments and return with snapshots — marking the first time the US safely landed a spacecraft on the Red Planet and despatched attend images.

The smoking gun, per Levin: the mission detected obvious outcomes all thru the Labeled Free up lifestyles detection experiment, which he spearheaded.

As section of the experiment, the lander blended a Martian soil pattern with a nitrogen-primarily based nutrient solution that modified into once “labeled” with a undeniable radioactive carbon compound. The concept modified into once that if microorganisms within the soil metabolized the vitamins, it would let off radioactive carbon dioxide gasoline.

Levin recounts how “amazingly” the initial outcomes of the experiment were obvious for microorganisms — and corroborated by both separate Mars landers some 4,000 miles apart.

And Levin is adamant: thousands of legitimate checks with Earth-primarily based soil and microbial cultures performed on the time, he argues, pork up the effects.

But aloof, there is an unlimited snag alongside with his outcomes: additional experiments “equipped no obvious proof for the presence of residing microorganisms in soil approach the touchdown sites,” as NASA puts it.

Levin helps his conclusion with proof obtained after NASA’s Viking missions, including the proof of surface water, methane, ammonia, and even “wormlike choices” showing in images taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover.

But NASA has persevered to drag its ft, in Levin’s eyes. He argues that in NASA’s prolonged historical previous of exploring Mars, it has failed — because the 1976 missions — to stare for boom proof of lifestyles, despite the search being “amongst its absolute most realistic priorities.”

In space of send soil samples all of the formulation attend to Earth — something that NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will try to attain — Levin thinks scientists can even aloof amplify on the outcomes of his 1970s experiments and conduct additional equal checks.

But earlier than that happens, he’ll should persuade NASA that his experiment’s proof for lifestyles on Mars is reliable.

This text modified into once initially published by Futurism. Learn the long-established article.