HAVE THE MARTIANS ALREADY LANDED?

Internet UFO Group Media Archive

From:Doug Roberts
Title:HAVE THE MARTIANS ALREADY LANDED?
Source:Daily Mail
Date:January 31, 1996


By John Lawrence

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."