Includes bibliographical references (p. [373]-375) and index.

Score -- Moon dust -- Odd ducks -- E.T.s handshake -- The convert -- Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy -- The grand inquisitor -- "Klaatu Barada Nikto" -- In the beam -- Schopf shock -- Explorations -- At daggers drawn -- Bingo -- Schadenfreude -- Down the rabbit hole.

Sixteen million years ago, an asteroid crashing into Mars sent fragments flying into space and, eons later, one was pulled by the Earth's gravity onto the icy wilderness of Antarctica, where a geologist spotted it. In its new home at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the rock languished on a shelf for nine years. Then, in 1993, a geochemist unmasked the rock as a Martian meteorite. Before long, possible signs of once-living organisms were detected, and the obscure rock became a rock star. From the second the story broke in Science magazine, it spawned waves of excitement, envy, competitive zeal, and calculation. The narrative traces the steps that led to this risky move and follows the rippling impact on the scientists' lives, the future of space exploration, the search for life on Mars, and the struggle to understand the origins of life on Earth.--From publisher description.