Life on Mars? Not this time.

Reports appeared earlier this month suggesting that photographs taken during NASAs Pathfinder mission to Mars potentially held evidence of the presence of Chlorophyll on the Red Planet’s surface. Those same reports also went on to caution that the

Reports appeared earlier this month suggesting that photographs taken during NASAs Pathfinder mission to Mars potentially held evidence of the presence of Chlorophyll on the Red Planet's surface. Those same reports also went on to caution that the results were extremely preliminary, and that no assumptions could be made until scientists had a chance to further study the imagery and conduct a full analysis.

The analysis has now been completed and, unfortunately for all true ET believers, it shows that the areas in question on Pathfinder's photographs were actually 'artifacts of the computer processing method' and not true Chlorophyll spectrum matches.

While disappointing, the results are not exactly a setback in the search for ET. We already know there's water on Mars, in the form of subterranean ice fields. We also know that 99.9% of Mars is yet to be examined thoroughly for signs of life. And then of course there's the fact that we are yet to properly explore any of the other planets in our solar system, let alone those outside it. Oh, and lets not even talk about getting outside our galaxy….

Until NASA figures out how to make a proper space exploration vessel using Fusion drives and some form of hypersleep system – or we break the Theory of Relativity – we'll all have to be satisfied with hunting for ET via SETI@Home.