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What results did the Viking landers get from their life-detection experiments?
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Mars
An especially serene view of Mars (Tharsis side), a composite of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in April 1999. The northern polar cap and encircling dark dune field of Vastitas Borealis are visible at the top of the globe. White water-ice clouds surround the most prominent volcanic peaks, including Olympus Mons near the western limb, Alba Patera to its northeast, and the line of Tharsis volcanoes to the southeast. East of the Tharsis rise can be seen the enormous near-equatorial gash that marks the canyon system Valles Marineris.
The Viking landers, which touched down on Mars in 1976, carried sophisticated experiments specifically designed to detect metabolism and organic molecules in the Martian soil.12
The results of these life-detection experiments were interpreted as negative. Scientists concluded that there was no unequivocal evidence of biological activity in the vicinity of the landing sites. These findings led to considerable pessimism regarding the prospects for life on Mars that persisted through the 1980s. While the landers successfully returned detailed data concerning Martian geology, meteorology, and atmospheric physics, they provided no convincing signs of living organisms on the planet's surface.3241