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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Mars Life May Be Too Deep to Find, Experts Conclude


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Tubular structures found inside an ancient Martian meteorite in 1996 could be fossils of microscopic bacteria-like organisms that may have lived on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago.

A team of European scientists has concluded that if there is life on Mars, it would have to exist too deep below the planet's surface for us to find with current technology. But eventually we may be able to drill deep enough into pockets of ice in gullies and craters and find dormant microbes that could be coaxed back to life.

Image courtesy NASA-JPL