NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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  1. Question

    What might ancient Mars life have looked like?

    We don't know what ancient Mars life might have looked like, or even what its basic chemistry might have been. Inititially, however, scientists will be testing the hypothesis that it was carbon-based microbial life similar to that on the early Earth. It appears that Mars and the Earth had similar surface conditions 4 billion years ago, so we might expect a similar development of life there.

    David Morrison
    NAI Senior Scientist

    May 17, 2004