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May 31, 2008

Phoenix may find salt and not life on Mars

The Martian probe Phoenix first has to find water in the Martian Arctic. But, even if it does, it most likely will not find signs of ancient Martian life.

A new study says that any liquid water flowing on Mars in eons past was likely to have been very briny. That said, the researchers note that our own planet has halophilic bacteria, along with thermophilic and other exotic life.

Nonetheless, those are niche forms of life here, so the odds of past, let alone present, life on Mars probably just dropped a whole lot.

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