re life on mars in article lv fpoinnqo exodus eng sun com jmck norge eng sun com john mckernan writes some new information has been discovered recently microscopic fossils have been found in very old rocks the theory is that this life is so old that it must have been destroyed during the periodic intense meteorite bombardments that were a feature of the early solar system under this theory life originated on earth multiple times between multiple meteorite bombardments and therefore the conditions for the creation of life cannot be that unlikely this was all badly reported in the news there is no evidence that signs of life found in old rock predate putative planet sterilizing events rather the argument was that if life arose shortly the last sterilizing event then it must be easily formed the inference was that life originated before and was destroyed but there was no evidence of that however even this argument is flawed it could well be that origin of life requires specific conditions say a certain composition of the atmosphere that do not last for long so perhaps life formed early only because it would have had no other chance to do so not because it was likely that life would originate under those conditions paul f dietz dietz cs rochester edu
