Chandra Wickramasinghe, a leading expert in astrobiology has said that there are evidence of life in Mars. According to him the discovery of liquid water on Mars combined with earlier discoveries of organic substances in a meteorite that came from Mars, and also of methane in the Martian atmosphere all conclusively point to the existence of life.

 

Emphasizing his viewpoint, he said that 32 years ago his friend Gil Levin, who was principal investigator on the Mars project maintains that life on Mars was indeed detected in 1976! And there were dead bodies and decomposition products of bacteria, but NASA is not announcing detection of life in Mars. He suspects that there could be political and sociological considerations at work.

 

Citing one reason behind non-announcement of detection of life in Mars, he said that authorities might be deterred by prospects of litigation arising from Planetary Protection. The principle aim of which is to prevent biological contamination of both the target celestial body and the Earth. He suggested not to waste wealth and resources if life has already been detected.