A NASA scientist has said chemicals found on Mars would technically be classified as signs of ancient life if they were found on Earth.
Dr. Michelle Thaller spoke to The U.S. Sun about the possibility of life on the Red Planet.
The U.S. SunDr. Michelle Thaller told The U.S. Sun about chemicals on Mars that could be potential signs of ancient life[/caption]
GettyNasa previously revealed it was looking for amino acids under the Martian surface[/caption]
The Nasa expert told us: “On Mars we see chemistry that on Earth, if it were here, we would say is due to life.
“But the question is, how well do we understand Mars and are we being fooled by something?”
Signs of ancient life that we’re used to spotting on Earth may not necessarily mean the same thing when found on the Red Planet.
However, Dr. Thaller told The U.S. Sun she’s certain we’ll find alien life in our Solar System.
The chemical substances discovered may be potential signs of ancient life but Dr. Thaller did not describe the exact chemical.
Nasa has found mysterious methane on Mars that it said “could have supported ancient life” and has also revealed plans to find amino acids.
Organic chemicals like amino acids can be used by archaeologists to confirm life was present.
Nasa previously revealed that it plans to dig deeper into Mars to find amino acids that haven’t been destroyed by space radiation.
A blog post from the US space agency explained: “Amino acids can be created by life and by non-biological chemistry.
“However, finding certain amino acids on Mars would be considered a potential sign of ancient Martian life because they are widely used by terrestrial life as a component to build proteins.
“Proteins are essential to life as they are used to make enzymes which speed up or regulate chemical reactions and to make structures.”
Alexander Pavlov of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, added: “Our results suggest that amino acids are destroyed by cosmic rays in the Martian surface rocks and regolith at much faster rates than previously thought.
“Current Mars rover missions drill down to about two inches (around five centimeters).
“At those depths, it would take only 20 million years to destroy amino acids completely.”
Tens of millions of years may sound like a long time but Nasa is looking for signs of ancient life that’s billions of years old.
It’s thought Mars would have been more like Earth billions of years ago.
Dr. Thaller stressed the importance of not confirming signs of life until there’s 100% certainty.
She told us: “The solar system may be teaming with simple life, microbial life.
“We just have to get that 100% certainty to say that we found it and we don’t have that yet.”