Extraterrestrial
Mars meteorite may contain evidence of life
By
T.K. RandallDecember 5, 2014 ·
13 comments
Could life have once existed on Mars ? Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A chunk of rock that landed in Morocco may hold evidence that life once existed on the Red Planet.
Discovered in 2011, the Tissint meteorite has been gaining significant attention lately due to the possibility that traces of carbon found inside it might indicate the presence of life.
Geophysicist Philippe Gillet and colleagues from China, Japan and Germany conducted a battery of tests on the space rock and believe that organic matter may have once been deposited inside it by water at some point in the planet's distant past.
While there is still a long way to go before the discovery can be confirmed, indications are encouraging that the meteorite may indeed hold something truly groundbreaking.
"I'm completely open to the possibility that other studies might contradict our findings," said Gillet. "However, our conclusions are such that they will rekindle the debate as to the possible existence of biological activity on Mars - at least in the past."
Source:
Yahoo! News |
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Tags:
Mars, Meteorite, Life
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