NASA has been hunting for life on Mars for the past years; doing numerous explorations to find signs of life.
However, one scientist believes that the International Space Union might have accidentally killed life on the Red Planet.
Scientist Claims NASA Accidentally Killed Life on Mars
In this concept illustration provided by NASA, NASA's Perseverance (Mars 2020) rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the planet's surface for future missions to retrieve in the area known as the Jezero crater on the planet Mars.
According to Live Science, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at the Technical University of Berlin, suggested that NASA might have accidentally killed living organisms on Mars.
He said this via his official Big Think article, which was published on June 27. The space experts shared that he was invited to speak at a symposium, which was organized by the Amsterdam Royal Palace Foundation.
He said that the conference focused on the search for extraterrestrial life. Dirk said that he shared a possibility that many people will find provocative.
"I dropped a suggestion that some people surely will find provocative: that we already did find life on Mars nearly 50 years ago - but that we inadvertently killed it," said the astrobiologist in his official blog post.
The scientists said that NASA possibly killed Mars' living things when it landed on the Red Planet back in 1976; the year when NASA's Viking landers reached the planet.
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NASA Experiments Too Much for Life on Mars?
This artist's rendition obtained from NASA on 01 May 2002 shows a "rat" (rock abrasion tool). NASA and JPL are planning on sending "rats" to Mars to work as field geologists. One rock abrasion tool, a high-tech robot with diamond teeth, will ride on each of the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, scheduled to launch in the summer of 2003.
Dirk explained that NASA's Viking landers in the mid-1970s reached the surface of Mars. These spacecraft carried scientific tools to conduct life-detecting experiments.
He explained that NASA's Viking landers tried using water to pressure living organisms on the Red Planet to show themselves.
The astrobiologist stated that NASA did this since it thinks that life on Mars also reacts to water just like how living organisms on Earth do.
But, Dirk said that the scientific activities of NASA, especially those involving the use of water, might have overwhelmed the microbes that were possibly living on Mars during that period.
The scientist concluded this since he and other researchers learned that living things in Earth's extremely dry places tend to make gradual progress as their habitats get more arid.
If you want to learn more about Dirk's explanation as to why NASA might have accidentally killed Mars' living organisms, you can click here.
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