Travelling alive?

1987/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

Ten years ago the Viking probes, when they left, ended the problem of life that could exist on Mars: it was not alive. A group of scientists studying an experiment that took place this summer have stated that there may be life.

Gilbert Lovin and Patricia Straat, designers of a probe experiment, said that our experiment seems to detect life on Mars. Each probe had three sessions ready to detect life. The experiment, prepared by Levin and Straat, included the case that microorganisms could take radioactively marked compounds. The session yielded positive results, but scientists exposed them through non-biological races. The rest of the sessions took no trace of life. Therefore, it was totally accepted that Martín is not alive.

Levin and Straat disagree. They consider that non-biological expression was not correct, even after studies of the last ten years. On the other hand, they consider that one of the two life detection sessions was insufficient to detect microorganisms in soils of low biological content.

Martitz's most likely way of life seems to be lichens. Lichens can live in places where the only source of water is the atmosphere. In Martitz's atmosphere, though scarcely, there is water, both in the white regions of the poles and inside the rocky surface of the planet.

The problem is there. We will have to wait a bit to find a response, until the middle of the next decade. Then more probes will be sent to Mars.