'Biggest discovery in the history '

May 6, 1999
Web posted at: 10:15 p.m. PDT

CONCORD (CNN) -- A NASA consultant announced Thursday that a primitive form of microscopic life may have existed on Mars about 4 billion years ago.

The announcement was made in Concord at a news conference to discuss the findings made by the 6th Grade Class at Oak Grove Middle School.

 The Oak Grove Imager on the school's rover sent back images after burrowing into the Martian polar ice cap. As the science team reported, "The finding of a life form on Mars similar to that of the form in the meteorite found on earth rules out the possibility of earthly contamination."

NASA Administrator Daniel Silver said the comparison of the Oak Grove image was made with those from an ancient Martian meteorite, labeled Allan Hills or ALH 84001, that landed on Earth about 13,000 years ago. The meteorite was found in Antarctica in 1984.

 Scientists say it is probable that Mars was very hot during its creation. As it cooled, it is possible the very basic elements of life formed. There's evidence of water and volcanoes on Mars. The combination means at some point there probably were organisms living deep underground. "So if life can exist under the ground on Earth, why couldn't it exist under the ground on Mars, too," said Paul Davis of the University of Adelaide in Australia. Davis said life forms that began on Mars billions of years ago may have taken cover deep below the Martian surface. The life forms could have gone underground as permafrost. The new image suggests that life may indeed be contained in the planet's ice caps.

(We are convinced that the above fiction will some day become reality.)