A whiff of life on the Red Planet

摘要

A leading European Space Agency scientist says he has found a gas in the Martian atmosphere that he believes can only be explained by the presence of life. But the few researchers who have been privy to the facts say that such a conclusion is premature. Vittorio Formisano of the Institute of Physics and Interplanetary Science in Rome will be speaking next week at the first conference dedicated to the results from ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The craft has been orbiting the Red Planet since December 2003. Agustin Chicarro, the project scientist for Mars Express and the organiser of the conference in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, says he expects sparks to fly. "We have allocated one full hour of debate-it could be a lively discussion."