Physicist Dr John Brandenburg has a new, stunning theory for why we can't see life on Mars.
The plasma physicist believes that the Cydonians and Utopians -- two Martian civilisations he made up -- were completely destroyed by an as yet, unidentified alien race.
Brandenburg believes that the evidence lies in the composition of Martial soil, which he suggests has the colouration and composition consistent with fallout from a series of "mixed fusion-fission explosions."
Scientists have argued that while he's, technically, not wrong about the soil thing, the discovery of high concentrations of Xenon-129 in the atmosphere should not be surprising as it's a commonly found substance.
Brandenburg will not be convinced, though. He says his theory is based on hard evidence -- using the photographs of the Curiosity rover as proof that we've already seen ancient archaeological sites, and the remnants of an ancient civilisation.
He'll be publishing his full set of findings in next month's Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.