Soil on Earth like Mars?

This was quite an interesting thing. The study of the soil in Chile's Atacama Desert has turned up similarities to the soil found on mars. This may help to explain why tests on mars raised false hopes about alien life of mars.

The discovery of Martian-like soil in Chile's Atacama Desert could shed light on the landings of the Viking spacecraft on Mars in the 1970s. Dry and largely devoid of organic material or microbial life, it has similar chemical properties to Martian soil. The finding could explain why tests conducted by the Mars Viking missions raised false hopes in the search for life on another planet.

Read the whole story

here

Has that Martian meteorite from 1996 never been proven to have microbial life on it? I thought it did. Or did the scientists revoke their claims?

Last I heard...still inconclusive on the meteorite.... Personally, I'd say it's step one in getting the public acclimated to the idea of the reality of extra-terrestrial life....

Last I heard...still inconclusive on the meteorite.... Personally, I'd say it's step one in getting the public acclimated to the idea of the reality of extra-terrestrial life....

YEh anything that makes the public less skeptical is great. I havn't heard anything about that metorite you mentioned heelstone.

Originally posted by earthtone
YEh anything that makes the public less skeptical is great. I havn't heard anything about that metorite you mentioned heelstone.

You seriously haven't heard about this meteorite? It was big news when it first came out. Though if you're under 20 right now you probably were too young to hear about it.

www.csmonitor.com...

Personally, I'd say it's step one in getting the public acclimated to the idea of the reality of extra-terrestrial life....

Because of the wishy washy nature of coming out with this piece of evidence, I do not think the meteorite was supposed to help acclimate the public. Its simply a red herring to throw the public off the real track, IMO.

Thanks for the link Heelstone. I'm pretty sure I did here about this metorite but I have a terrible memory!