NASA May Have Inadvertently Killed Life on Mars, Scientist Says
In all our explorations of Mars to date, no evidence has been found that meets the rigorous standards to claim that we have conclusively found life.
But, decades ago in the 1970s, when the Viking landers became the first US mission to safely land on and explore the red planet, we may have been close.
One researcher raises the possibility that life existed in a sample of Martian soil. And then, in our quest to sniff it, we snuffed it out. Just like that.
https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-may-have-inadvertently-killed-life-on-mars-scientist-says