At last, the answer to David Bowie’s question... there was life on Mars.
A meteorite that fell to Earth from the red planet has been found to contain carbon - the key building block of existence.
The rock was found in the Moroccan desert three-and-a-half years ago.
Scientists examining minute cracks in it believe it has a biological origin.
Carbon could have been deposited into the rock’s fissures when it was still on Mars and was soaked in fluid rich in organic matter.
Dr Philippe Gillet, director of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology’s Earth and Planetary Sciences Laboratory in Lausanne, said: “So far there is no other theory we find more compelling.”
Eye-witnesses saw the meteorite fall to Earth in a fireball in 2011 lighting up the desert and two sonic-booms were heard.
It was named the Tissint meteorite after the nearest town 30 miles away.
It is thought to have been blasted off the surface of Mars by an asteroid strike.
The new research believes liquids containing organic compounds of biological origin leaked into Tissint’s "mother" rock at low temperatures near the Martian surface.
Its chemical composition closely matches ratios seen in a piece of coal on Earth and carbon in our atmosphere.
Dr Gillet added: “Insisting on certainty is unwise - particularly on such a sensitive topic.
“I’m completely open to the possibility other studies might contradict our findings.
“However our conclusions are such they will rekindle the debate as to the possible existence of biological activity on Mars - at least in the past.”
About 3.5billion years ago, Mars and Earth were much more similar.
Evidence from Mars missions suggest Mars may have been much warmer and wetter than today.
All recent scientific probes to Mars have been focussed on finding evidence of life on the surface of the planet prior to a manned mission in the Orion space programme scheduled for around 2025.
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