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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."

5 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Morbo predicted this... by derGoldstein · · Score: 4, Funny

    Morbo predicted this...

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    Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
  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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    1. Re:Actually, they did by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Interesting

      until there's an actual organism located and cultured the correct response is skepticism.

      Not if we're just talking about organic compounds, which I and TFA are. Organic compounds have been found in all kinds of places where life is highly unlikely to exist, like Titan (which has oceans of methane) or gaseous nebulae.

      I, personally, think life doesn't just inhabit niches.. if there's life on Mars anywhere, there should be life on Mars everywhere.

      Eh. Everywhere there's sufficient food and energy, sure. If there's a Martian equivalent to deep-sea thermal vents, where life on earth is theorized to have started, then there might be life all around them but not on the surface where it's easy to find. Or maybe there was life on the surface while there was water there, but not it's no longer suitable.

      The point of this new analysis is to see if maybe Viking really did discover organics, and also to refine techniques for finding them so future missions can do a better job of searching for them. It could in fact be that there is evidence of (former) life everywhere, but we weren't been able to find it due to lacking the proper techniques before. The only way to know is to check.

      In the meantime, sure, skepticism is warranted. I'm not holding out for there being evidence of life on Mars. But I want to know, and this is an important step.

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  3. Re:The Universe by beakerMeep · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slashdot didn't properly detect it as a story. Probably due to methodology.

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    meep
  4. Re:The Universe by Lotana · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And yet despite all this, comparing to all others, it is still the best discussion site on the net.