If their analysis, published this week in the journal Nature, is correct, then the rocks contain some of the oldest signs of life on Earth. “For a discovery of such an extraordinary kind, you’d have to be 10 times as rigorous as you’d be on Earth,” Allwood said. At the time these rocks were forming, scientists believe, Mars looked very similar to Earth — and even had liquid water. “Simply just reporting isotopically light carbon doesn’t give you early life,” Dodd said. Now, Allan Hills 84001 is considered a cautionary tale for scientists seeking ancient life on Earth and elsewhere.

Source: Washington Post September 28, 2017 18:31 UTC