The Viking project of thirty-odd years ago was designed to search for life on Mars. Despite interesting results from one of the main tests, the scientific community has decided that Viking did not find life.
A new study, while affirming that Viking probably didn't find life, suggests nonetheless that Viking may have found evidence of organic compounds that can lead to life. A key element in the new study's reasoning is the discovery of perchorates in the soil by Mars Phoenix. Viking experiments included one that heated Martian soil samples looking for chemical reactions from life. That one seemed to get a hit, but no organics were subsequently found in the samples. Perchorates-- complex chemical compounds-- destroy organics when heated, however, so they might explain the absence of organics recorded by Viking.
The study is a reminder of how science works. It accumulates data over time, develops hypotheses, and accumulates more data. The significance of a project is sometimes not known until much later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment