From UFO sightings to reports of alien activity, scientists have searched for answers to questions about extra-terrestrial life for decades.
One University of Wisconsin-Madison professor is joining the search to find answers by working with a team of scientists, including almost 25 from UW-Madison, to study rocks on Earth in hopes of developing a method to detect life in rock samples from other planets.
UW-Madison geoscience professor Clark Johnson’s team examines rocks to find “biosignatures,” or traces of ancient life, in rocks on Earth to prepare for the future if rock samples from other planets, including Mars, become available for testing.
“Since we can freely walk around on the earth rather than rely only on working remotely on another planet, we basically use early life on Earth to inform us about what we might look for in another planet,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he became interested in the topic after reading an article that suggested a meteorite from Mars contained evidence of alien life. Although, many scientists discredited the article, Johnson said it made him interested in the topic and how best to test for signs of life.
“In the end, most scientists don’t believe that this particular meteorite…actually contains evidence for life on Mars,” Johnson said. “But it actually provided kind of a spark for a lot of people to see, ‘OK, how would we test this? What would we look for?’”
The team’ research is funded completely by a five-year, $7 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
