LATEST NEWS INTERIOR PHOTO (top left): An electron image of a particle from the ALH84001 meteorite showing carbonate globules in orange. A study by researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and three universities claimed on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1996, to have found organic compounds within these globules they say were deposited by primitive life forms before the rock was blasted into space and sent on a 15 million-year voyage to Earth. Other experts have scoffed at the claim and said the evidence would have to be much stronger to be credible. CR: AP/NASA

LATEST NEWS INTERIOR PHOTO (bottom right): The meteorite labeled ALH84001 sits in a chamber at a Johnson Space Center lab in Houston, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 1996. Researchers at NASA and three universities claimed Wednesday to have found in the rock from Mars organic compounds that they say were deposited by primitive life forms before the rock was blasted into space and sent on a 15 million-year voyage to Earth. CR: DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP

SKEPTICS HOMEPAGE BACKGROUND: U.S. scientists have found evidence of possible life on Mars in remains from a Martian meteorite, NASA officials said August 6. NASA said in a statement that scientists from the space agency and Stanford University have discovered "strong circumstantial evidence of possible early Martian life, including microfossil remains found in a Martian meteorite". The scientists based their theory of life on Mars on an examination of an ancient Martian meteorite that landed on earth 13,000 years ago. File photo taken on Mars approximately in September 1976 at Utopia Planitia by the U.S. Viking 2 unmanned spacecraft. CR: VIKING 2 FILE PHOTO OF PLANET MARS (NASA/REUTERS)

SKEPTICS (top left): NASA Administrator Donald Goldin, center, joined by Dr. Wesley Huntress Jr., left, and Dr. David McKay, both NASA officials, look at Allan Hills 84001, the Mars rock that may prove that past life existed on Mars. CR: DOUG MILLS/AP

TIME COVERAGE BACKGROUND: The surface of Mars is shown in this mosaic file photograph taken by the Viking spacecraft. A team of U.S. scientists have discovered evidence of ancient, single-cell life on Mars in remains of a meteorite that plunged to earth 13,000 years ago. CR:LANET MARS AS SEEN FROM THE VIKING ORBITER (NASA/AP)