NASA’s Viking landers may have stumbled upon evidence of alien life on Mars 50 years ago, but it’s possible that they inadvertently destroyed it. According to Dirk Schulze-Makuch from the Technical University Berlin, an experiment conducted in the 1970s that involved adding water to the Martian soil may have drowned any potential life forms.
This experiment, known as the Viking Labeled Release experiment, initially showed signs of metabolism, but subsequent investigations found no trace of organic material. Schulze-Makuch argues that the addition of water, along with a nutrient solution, may have created an excess of liquid that caused any potential life to perish. This theory is supported by the existence of microbes in the Atacama, a region with a similar environment to Mars, which can survive without rain but would be eradicated by excessive water.
The Viking landers, which touched down on Mars in 1976, were equipped with various instruments to search for signs of life and study the planet’s soil and atmosphere. Despite conflicting results from the experiments, Schulze-Makuch refers to them as “puzzling.” One test yielded positive results for life, while another showed negative gas exchange. However, small amounts of chlorinated organics were detected.
In a 2007 study, Schulze-Makuch proposed that Martian life could have adapted to its environment by incorporating hydrogen peroxide into its cells. This adaptation would provide advantages such as a low freezing point, a source of oxygen, and hygroscopicity. If indigenous Martian life did contain hydrogen peroxide, the addition of water during the Viking experiments would have been fatal, causing the hydrogen peroxide to react with organic molecules and produce carbon dioxide, which was detected by the instruments.
Another experiment carried out by the Viking landers, called pyrolytic release, tested for organic synthesis and also showed positive results. It involved mixing carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from Earth to see if the carbon would be incorporated into the soil. The detection of chlorinated organics led some scientists to speculate that the landers may have introduced terrestrial contaminants to Mars.
However, subsequent missions have confirmed the presence of native organic compounds on Mars, albeit in a chlorinated form. Schulze-Makuch suggests that life on Mars may have adapted to the arid environment by existing within salt rocks and absorbing water directly from the atmosphere. The addition of water to soil samples during the Viking experiments may have overwhelmed these potential microbes, leading to their demise.
Although the Viking landers ceased communication with Earth in the early 1980s, they remain on Mars to this day, serving as a testament to humanity’s exploration of the Red Planet.
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