Space rock re-opens Mars debate

[telfrow]

<i>A carbon-rich substance found filling tiny cracks within a Martian meteorite could boost the idea that life once existed on the Red Planet. <br /><br />The material resembles that found in fractures, or "veins", apparently etched by microbes in volcanic glass from the Earth's ocean floor. <br /><br />Details will be presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, next month. <br /><br />All the processes of life on Earth are based on the element carbon. <br /><br />Proving carbon in Martian meteorites is indigenous - and not contamination from Earth - is crucial to the question of whether life once arose on the Red Planet. <br /><br />Initial measurements support the idea that the "carbonaceous material" is not contamination, the scientists say. <br /><br />But the evidence so far is unlikely to convince the sceptics. <br /><br />The research team includes scientists who brought evidence for microbial life in another Martian meteorite, ALH84001, to the world's attention in 1998. <br /><br />The Martian meteorites are an extremely rare class of rocks. They are all believed to have been blasted off the surface of the Red Planet by huge impacts; the material would have drifted through space for millions of years before falling to Earth. </i><br /><br />Complete Story Here <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[bonzelite]

being that the likelihood of the martian gulleys, that appear to originate at the bases of rock outcroppings and cliffs, are probably due to geothermally heated aquifers, life could be rife as we speak. <br /><br />or not <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <br /><br />jury is out.

 

[extrasense]

Be asssured, fools still will doubt the obvious.<br /><br />ES<br />

 

[telfrow]

.pdf files of the presentations to be made at the 37th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference can be found here. <br /><br />Scroll down to "McKay, D. S." and open files 2251 and 2039.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>