We’ve spent billions of dollars trying to find evidence of life on Mars, but have so far come back empty handed. We shouldn’t consider those billions a waste, though. The research the money has funded keeps validating the conviction that we’re right to keep searching—and that we’re likely to soon find what we’re looking for.
The latest such affirmation comes from a study just published in Nature, where researchers report the oldest evidence for life on Earth. Life may have existed as early as 4.3 billion years ago, merely 200 million years after the Earth’s crust was thought to have been formed. Quartz has you covered for everything you need to know about the discovery.
What’s more intriguing, however, is how the finding bolsters the case for searching for life on Mars, and may even narrow down the kinds of places on the red planet where we should look.
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