Due: in class on 1 December 2011
The page http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html has a nice review of the case for life on Mars made by the meteorite ALH8401. The page, http://www.marsnews.com/focus/life/, has an article which discusses ALH8401 and some other issues connected with Life on Mars. Further information and links can be found at http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/index.html.
1. How do we know that the meteorite ALH84001 is from Mars?
2. Review the evidence presented on the site.
What is your opinion of the evidence? Does it strongly
suggest that life existed on Mars?
What do you think is the most convincing piece of evidence
that life existed on Mars? What do you think is the weakest link in the
argument life exited on Mars?
3. How do you think the issue of life on Mars will be eventually settled?
(See here
for a recent discussion of various aspects of the search for life on Mars.)