Posted: Mon, Sep 10, 2001, 11:50 PM ET (0350 GMT)
Scientists involved with NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission refuted claims published in the media several days ago that images of Mars taken by the spacecraft show evidence of life on the planet. A noted posted on the web site of MGS's Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument said that dark spots seen in the southern hemisphere during the spring are geologic features, such as bare exposed soil or dark dry ice. Hungarian scientists said Friday that they believed that those spots are the dried remnants of organisms which live under the ice during the winter, and reactivate themselves when the ice returns. According to the note on the MGS TES site, the Hungarian conclusions are "riddled" with scientific errors, such as claims that temperatures in the southern hemisphere go as low as -200 degrees Celsius, when in fact do not drop below -125 Celsius.

Related Links:

•  MGS TES web site
•  Reuters article about Hungarian claims