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Viking Landers Might Have Missed Martian Organics

Posted by samzenpus on from the police-the-planet dept.

Sonny Yatsen writes "A new study suggests that the Viking Landers might have found organic compounds on Mars, but failed to recognize them because of the methodology used to detect organics. The findings may suggest specific strategies that would improve on the way organic compounds are detected on the red planet."

2 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Post by blackraven14250 · · Score: 3, Informative

    They specifically mentioned this study, and how the Phoenix lander found perchlorates, and how Viking's info may have been wrong. There's nothing in the article that indicates anything different than the episode, which is why I posted the comment about the "speedy delivery" of the news by Science News. That episode is at least a couple months past shooting by now.

  2. Actually, they did by scorp1us · · Score: 5, Informative

    But NASA invalidated the tests

    The results of these experiments were complex. The first three gave positive results, but the complete absence of any organic compounds in the Martian soil according to the mass spectrometer experiment suggests that the positive results for the first three were not evidence for life, but rather evidence for a complex inorganic chemistry in the Martian soil. Thus, the Viking verdict was that there was no evidence for present or past life on Mars.

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