Scientist Finds Something On Mars, But No One Believes Him, But They Wanted To Prove It

“Scientists find something on Mars, but no one believes him. Finding life on Mars is like finding life in the deep dark blue. Decades of nothing until one day, there might be something. For more than 40 years, NASA remains skeptical about his findings. But in 2018, a new find uncovered a clue to the billion-dollar question: Is there life on Mars?

American engineer and former NASA scientist, Gilbert V. Levin, was the leading investigator of the Viking mission’s Labeled Release (LR) experiment in 1976. Since then, he’s been trying to convince the world that he found life on Mars during the experiment, publishing multiple scientific reports arguing the mission’s positive results. He detailed exactly what he found.

The primary mission of the experiment was to detect microorganisms in Martian soil by searching for microbial life similar to that found on Earth. Four space probes were sent out to Mars, and only one returned with positive results. The LR experiment showed increased CO2 production when the soil was exposed to water and nutrients. This reaction meant a form of metabolism was occurring, proving the potential presence of life.

However, that’s not all Levin found. When Levin brought his findings to the rest of the team at NASA, he was surprised at their reaction. Instead of being met with enthusiasm and excitement for further investigation, like Levin expected, he was met with apprehensive glances and doubt in disbelief. Levin studied his findings again to identify how his successful experiment could be viewed as inconclusive. But what Levin then found would shock the world twice over.

As Levin reinvestigated his findings, he cross-referenced the information gained from the other space probes and became overwhelmed at the sheer potential of their discovery. He couldn’t understand how NASA rejected his findings so readily, especially with the partnering evidence he found right before his eyes. He was going to prove everyone wrong with this latest discovery.

The mission showed many geological formations that are formed from larger amounts of water were discovered and captured during this mission. These images would revolutionize the way scientists think about water and life on Mars. In 1976, they captured evidence of eroded grooves into bedrocks that traveled thousands of miles and branch stream networks that suggested rain once fell on Mars.

But that’s not all. Other regions appear to have lost a massive volume of water in a short period of time, causing large channels to be formed. The volume of water is estimated to have been 10,000 times the flow of the Mississippi River. Feeling reassured, Levin prepared to confront NASA with his updated argument. Little did he know his life’s work was about to be trampled on.

Walking back in through the doors of NASA’s headquarters, Levin felt a wash of quiet excitement run over him. He believed in his experiment and was desperate to ask NASA to keep investigating with more missions to Mars. However, when he met the board, he realized he’d been working on something during his absence.

NASA looked at duplicating Levin’s experiment in their laboratory but couldn’t. Thus, they used the other failed experiments to dismiss Levin’s positive result as a false positive. They determined that the soil’s metabolic reaction was due to some unknown chemical reaction rather than a biological one. This discredited extraterrestrial life.

However, there have been new developments since this early conclusion. When NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life but not life may delay the exploration of life on Mars by decades, Levin exposes that 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. Now it turns out they weren’t needed as new potential evidence unfolds decades after Levin’s first discovery of life on Mars.

More and more potentially promising signs of life were discovered on Mars. However, NASA had yet to openly acknowledge the development of further evidence supporting life on Mars. In 2018, a new find uncovered the billion-dollar question that NASA seemed to be avoiding. Is it safe to say that there’s life on Mars?

In 2018, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered organic matter on Mars, and a year later, it also found sediments suggesting that once there were ancient salty lakes scattered across Mars’s surface. So, is there life on Mars? Well, we still don’t know. But what is the evidence against the possibility of life on Mars? Levin writes, “The astonishing fact is that there is none.”

So, what now? If there is life on Mars, it would appear as microorganisms that would be difficult to detect and nearly impossible to reach a general consensus among scientists and the astrobiology community if more evidence is not presented. Although Levin’s theory of life on Mars is gaining a following, NASA has still not announced further investigation. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

To Levin’s dismay, NASA’s next mission to Mars in 2020 has confirmed that it will not carry out any life detection experiments. However, they will carry out experiments to detect past life on Mars by looking for past habitable environments and biosignatures in rocks. They’ll also explore a vital piece of information needed if humans were to survive on Mars. They’re going to test oxygen production on Mars as well as carry out an evaluation of Martian weather to assess how future human colonies could potentially fare on Mars.

However, difficult scientists like Levin are still confident they can develop the tools and find the evidence needed to confirm with absolute certainty that there is life on Mars. Until then, their critics would say that exceptional claims require exceptional evidence.”