Mars's Peroxide Snow Would Kill Any Surface Life

Dust storms on Mars appear to be creating a snow of bleachlike chemicals that make their way into the planet's soil—rendering life as we know it impossible on the red planet's surface, scientists report.

The announcement comes close to the tenth anniversary—August 6, 1996—of the now discredited claim by NASA scientists that they had discovered evidence of life on Mars inside a Martian meteor found in Antarctica.