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Lifeless Martian samples and their significance

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Although a major objective in Mars exploration is the search for life, there are many scenarios that could lead to the recovery of lifeless samples. What could lifeless samples tell us about Mars and its habitability?

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Fig. 1: Scenarios leading to the recovery of lifeless samples from Mars.

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Acknowledgements

C.S.C. acknowledges support from Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) grant ST/R000875/1. S.M. acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement 747877.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UK Centre for Astrobiology, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Charles S. Cockell & Sean McMahon

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  1. Charles S. Cockell
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  2. Sean McMahon
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Correspondence to Charles S. Cockell.

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Cockell, C.S., McMahon, S. Lifeless Martian samples and their significance. Nat Astron 3, 468–470 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0777-0

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