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Question
Has there ever been a life form of any sort found on the planet Mars?
No, not yet -- although claims have been made, the scientific consensus is that the case for life has not been substantiated. The two most interesting scientific suggestions were the results from the Viking mission life detection experiments in 1976, which one of the investigators interprets as providing a positive result, and the 1996 claims concerning fossil microbes in the martian rock ALH 84001. Most scientists think that it will probably be several years before we can mount a serious search for life on Mars, either past (fossils) or persisting today.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
October 27, 2003
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