Proof of life found on Mars four decades ago, reveal former NASA scientist

• The experiment was code named "Labeled Release".
• The Viking probes placed nutrients in Mars soil samples.
• Levin says experiments for the purpose will continue till they were sure of signs of microbial life on the red planet.

(Karachi) NASA's former scientist Gilbert V. Levin said that there were proofs of life on Mars after an experiment results turned out to be positive a few decades back.

Levin was a principal investigator on Mars experiment that send viking landers on the Red Planet four decades ago.

In an article published in Scientific American Journal, the former NASA scientist revealed that the experiment which was code named "Labeled Release" was conducted on July 30, 1976, to find samples of organic life on the soil of the Red Planet.

He said after the experiment, the LR returned its initial results from Mars. Amazingly, they were positive.

Levin transpired as the experiment progressed, a total of four positive results, supported by five varied controls, streamed down from the twin Viking spacecraft landed some 4,000 miles apart.

He stated the data curves signaled the detection of microbial respiration on the Red Planet. The curves from Mars were similar to those produced by LR tests of soils on Earth. "It seemed we had answered that ultimate question."

Highlighting the experimental process, the former NASA scientist mentioned the Viking probes placed nutrients in Mars soil samples. "If life were present, it would consume the food and leave gaseous traces of its metabolism, which radioactive monitors would then detect," he said.

"To make sure it was a biological reaction, the test was repeated after cooking the soil, which would prove lethal to known life. If there was a measurable reaction in the first and not the second sample, that would suggest biological forces at work and that's exactly what happened," Levin pointed out.

However, he said despite the proposition that life exists on Mars, it could not be confirmed that life really existed on the planet. "NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life," said Levin. He said that no flase positive or false negative results were ever obtained.

"Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA's subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results," he mentioned.

In 2019, NASA official Jim Bridgnetine said they might find microbial life on Mars. Bridgnetine said experiments for the purpose will continue till they were sure of signs of microbial life on the red planet.

But now, decades later, there are more and more promising signs. NASA's Curiosity rover found organic matter on Mars in 2018, and just last week it found sediments that suggest there were once ancient salty lakes on the surface of Mars.

NASA's Mars 2020 rover is set to launch next summer and land in February 2021. It carries an instrument that will help it search for past signs of life on Mars -- the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals instrument, dubbed SHERLOC.