April 23, 2009

Life Beyond Earth in 10 Years or Less?

Written by Anne Minard

Illustration credit: Robert McCall

Peter Smith feels pretty certain we’ll be finding life on Mars within the next decade.

Smith, the University of Arizona professor who led NASA’s Phoenix Mars Mission, made his predictions to a spellbound audience during a lecture at the University of Delaware earlier this month, and he discussed his ideas by phone on Thursday.

He carries a “sense of optimism” about finding life on Mars, he said, because of the tantalizing clues Phoenix sent to Earth.

“Finding life on Mars would be one of the great discoveries of all time,” he said. “We’re not that far away. The next mission could be the one.”

Full article here:

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/23/life-beyond-earth-in-10-years-or-less/

Hey, at least it's not twenty years away.