Study Nixes Mars Life in Meteorite Found in Antarctica

FILE - The meteorite labeled ALH84001 is held in the hand of a scientist at a Johnson Space Center lab in Houston, Aug. 7, 1996. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
FILE - The meteorite labeled ALH84001 is held in the hand of a scientist at a Johnson Space Center lab in Houston, Aug. 7, 1996. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
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Study Nixes Mars Life in Meteorite Found in Antarctica

FILE - The meteorite labeled ALH84001 is held in the hand of a scientist at a Johnson Space Center lab in Houston, Aug. 7, 1996. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
FILE - The meteorite labeled ALH84001 is held in the hand of a scientist at a Johnson Space Center lab in Houston, Aug. 7, 1996. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

A 4 billion-year-old meteorite from Mars that caused a splash here on Earth decades ago contains no evidence of ancient, primitive Martian life after all, scientists reported Thursday.

In 1996, a NASA-led team announced that organic compounds in the rock appeared to have been left by living creatures. Other scientists were skeptical and researchers chipped away at that premise over the decades, most recently by a team led by the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Andrew Steele, The Associated Press said.

Tiny samples from the meteorite show the carbon-rich compounds are actually the result of water — most likely salty, or briny, water — flowing over the rock for a prolonged period, Steele said. The findings appear in the journal Science.

During Mars' wet and early past, at least two impacts occurred near the rock, heating the planet's surrounding surface, before a third impact bounced it off the red planet and into space millions of years ago. The 4-pound (2-kilogram) rock was found in Antarctica in 1984.

Groundwater moving through the cracks in the rock, while it was still on Mars, formed the tiny globs of carbon that are present, according to the researchers. The same thing can happen on Earth and could help explain the presence of methane in Mars' atmosphere, they said.

But two scientists who took part in the original study took issue with these latest findings, calling them “disappointing." In a shared email, they said they stand by their 1996 observations.

“While the data presented incrementally adds to our knowledge of (the meteorite), the interpretation is hardly novel, nor is it supported by the research,” wrote Kathie Thomas-Keprta and Simon Clemett, astromaterial researchers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“Unsupported speculation does nothing to resolve the conundrum surrounding the origin of organic matter” in the meteorite, they added.

According to Steele, advances in technology made his team's new findings possible.

He commended the measurements by the original researchers and noted that their life-claiming hypothesis “was a reasonable interpretation" at the time. He said he and his team — which includes NASA, German and British scientists — took care to present their results “for what they are, which is a very exciting discovery about Mars and not a study to disprove” the original premise.

This finding “is huge for our understanding of how life started on this planet and helps refine the techniques we need to find life elsewhere on Mars, or Enceladus and Europa,” Steele said in an email, referring to Saturn and Jupiter’s moons with subsurface oceans.

The only way to prove whether Mars ever had or still has microbial life, according to Steele, is to bring samples to Earth for analysis. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover already has collected six samples for return to Earth in a decade or so; three dozen samples are desired.

Millions of years after drifting through space, the meteorite landed on an icefield in Antarctica thousands of years ago. The small gray-green fragment got its name — Allan Hills 84001 — from the hills where it was found.

Just this week, a piece of this meteorite was used in a first-of-its-kind experiment aboard the International Space Station. A mini scanning electron microscope examined the sample; Thomas-Keprta served as operated it remotely from Houston. Researchers hope to use the microscope to analyze geologic samples in space — on the moon one day, for example — and debris that could ruin station equipment or endanger astronauts.



Kate, Princess of Wales, to Present Women's Singles Trophy at Wimbledon

Britain’s Kate, Princess of Wales awaits the arrival of France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron in Windsor, England, Tuesday July 8, 2025, on the first day of a three-day state visit to Britain. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP)
Britain’s Kate, Princess of Wales awaits the arrival of France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron in Windsor, England, Tuesday July 8, 2025, on the first day of a three-day state visit to Britain. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP)
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Kate, Princess of Wales, to Present Women's Singles Trophy at Wimbledon

Britain’s Kate, Princess of Wales awaits the arrival of France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron in Windsor, England, Tuesday July 8, 2025, on the first day of a three-day state visit to Britain. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP)
Britain’s Kate, Princess of Wales awaits the arrival of France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron in Windsor, England, Tuesday July 8, 2025, on the first day of a three-day state visit to Britain. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP)

Kate, the Princess of Wales, is set to present the trophy to the winner of the women's singles final at Wimbledon on Saturday after opting not to attend the match last year while she was recovering from cancer.

The All England Club said Kate, the wife of Prince William, will be back in the Royal Box on Center Court for the match between eighth-seeded Iga Swiatek and No. 13 Amanda Anisimova. She will then take part in the on-court trophy presentation, The AP news reported.

Kate has been the patron of the All England Club since 2016 and has regularly attended the men's and women's finals. However, she was not there when Barbora Krejcikova defeated Jasmine Paolini for the women's title last year.

She did hand the trophy to Carlos Alcaraz after his victory over Novak Djokovic in the men's final, when she made only her second public appearance since announcing she was diagnosed with cancer.

She has been gradually returning to public duties since since announcing last fall that she had completed chemotherapy, and took part in welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron during his state visit to Britain this week.