NASA probes may have overlooked Martian microbes

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have stumbled upon alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist theorizes. The problem was the Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life and did not recognize it, the researcher said in a paper presented Sunday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. This new report, based on a more expansive view of where life can take root, may have NASA looking for a different type of Martian life form when its next Mars spacecraft is launched later this year, one of the space agency's top scientists told The Associated Press.