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Meteorites found freeze dried in the Antarctic ice are collected annually by teams of intrepid scientists. ALH84001 is one such specimen whose isotopic ratios strongly point to Mars as its most likely place of origin. ALH84001 was the first (001) specimen collected in ALlen Hills, Antarctica, in 1984. Included in its interior are carbon nodules with what appear to be fossil bacteria, nanobacteria, comparable to the earliest forms found in fossiliferous rocks on Earth. The associated chemical residues are not incompatible with a biological origin, suggesting that these small objects (seen here via an electron microscope) could be the first Martians ever seen by human eyes (McKay, et.al., NASA/JSC, 1996).
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