From: | Doug Roberts |
Title: | HAVE THE MARTIANS ALREADY LANDED? |
Source: | Daily Mail |
Date: | January 31, 1996 |
Life On Earth 'May Have Come From A Meteorite'
It all seemed a little far fetched in H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds. But the
latest scientific research suggests there could be life on Mars after all.
Unlike the advanced civilisation described in the book, however, our cosmic
neighbours are likely to be giant white worms that feed on bacteria.
Scientists believe microsopic life once existed on the surface of the Red
Planet but moved underground billions of years ago to escape the harsh
conditions.
The most striking theory being discussed at a conference in london yesterday
was that life on Earth may have begun on Mars.
A meteorite could bave smashed into the surface of the distant planet and sent
rock fragments - and their microscopic inhabitants - hurtling through space in
our direction.
The theory was sparked by the discovery last March of an Antarctic rock which
was proven to have come from Mars and which contained amino-acids - the
building blocks of life.
Hope of finding life on Mars was all but abandoned 20 years ago when the Viking
probe landed on the sub-zero landscape and failed to detect a single organic
molecule, even though it was sensitive enough to pick out one part in a
billion. But thinking changed late last year when American scientists found
bacteria living more than half a mile beneath the Columbia River on a diet of
nothing but darkness, rocks and water - well away from the life giving light
of the sun.
Similar conditions could easily exist on Mars, say the experts, who are meeting
in London under the umbrella of the Ciba worldwide scientific foundation.
Later this year, the first in a series of unmanned U.S. space probes will be
launched to look for fossil evidence of Martian life. The probes are due to
report back in 2005 and the findings could lead to a radical rethink of
theories on the evolution of out solar system.
Professor Malcolm Walter, from the School of Earth Sciences ar Macquarie
University, New South Wales, Australia, said pictures of Mars showed valleys
and channels which one contained lakes and rivers when surface temperatures
were higher.
He believes life may have retreated deep into the planet's interior as
temperatures plunged for billion years ago and then stayed there - sustained by
the warmth of volcanic hot springs. Professor Walter compared the importance of
the exploration programme to the great European voyages in the Middle Ages and
Charles Darwin's work on the theory of Evolution in the 19th century.
Dr Robert Hutchison, a meteorite specialist at the Natural History Museum, said
any bacteria which had made the journey between the planets would have faced a
severe endurance test - possibly circling the sun for millions of years before
they landed.
But he believed that such a journey was possible. "Any life in the very middle
of the rock would be protected from the ultra-violet radiation of space and the
heat of entering the Earth's atmosphere," he explained.
Dr Hutchison believed there was a "distinct possibility" that theories of
Martian life could soon be proved true.
But he added: "We won't find little green men and any life we do find will be
extremely ancient.
"It's a good job they won't be able to communicate because we'd have heard all
their jokes already."