Was life discovered in a meterorite from Mars? In 1984, a meteorite which was ejected from Mars about 16 million years ago, was found by a group of scientists in Antarctica. It traveled for a long time in space before hitting Earth about 13 thousand years ago. The meteorite, called meteorite ALH84001, was carefully studied. Scientists discovered that the meteorite was about 4.5 billion years old and could have been on Mars when Mars had liquid water and possibly life. Studies showed that the Mars meteorite had grains of carbonate minerals which needed liquid water to form. Also, scientists discovered tiny tube-like structures within the meteorite which looked like fossilized microbial life (life that is so small that you can only see it through a microscope) and organic molecules. This may be evidence that Mars once had life. However, there are also some scientists who think that the tube-like structures cannot be ancient mircroscopic life because they are too small.