Life on Mars? NASA could have discovered life on the Red Planet nearly 50 years ago

NASA may have burned possible evidence of life on Mars during a pioneering mission to explore the Red Planet 40 years ago, it has sensationally been claimed.

Since the Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2012, NASA has known that the planet contains complex organic molecules that indicate it may have once hosted alien life .

But a new report by New Scientist suggests that Curiosity may not have been the first rover to find evidence of life on Mars.

The report suggests that during the 1970s, NASA’s Viking mission may have also found evidence of complex organic matter.

However, the report indicates that the remote-controlled rover may have unknowingly burnt the traces of matter discovered.

This idea is based on the fact that NASA’s Phoenix Lander, which was on Mars ten years ago, discovered perchlorate – a toxic compound.

While this compound is highly flammable on Earth, it’s cool on Mars, so has little opportunity to burn.

Back in the 1970s, the Viking rover heated samples of Martian soil to 500 degrees – a temperature hot enough to have burned the perchlorate, alongside complex organic molecules.

The NASA researchers believe that this issue may have been discovered after Phoenix’s data came to light.

In 2013, Curiosity found organic molecules, as well as chlorobenzene molecules, which are produced when carbon reacts with perchlorate.

This indicates that the Viking lander may have discovered the organic molecules back in the 1970s, but accidentally burned them.