Decoding the Martian meteorite that fell to Earth
A team of Hungarian scientists analyzed a meteorite that fell from a neighboring planet to Earth and discovered biological signatures.
A group of scientists led by Dr. Ildiko Gyollai, from the Center for Astronomy and Earth Sciences in Budapest - Hungary, has just discovered a new fish.c "biological signature"in the mysterious meteorite. The National Institute of Polar Research of Japan found this meteorite around 1977, 1978 located in Allan Hills, South Victoria Land, Antarctica and half submerged in ice.
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Close-up of Martian meteorite bearing biological signature - (photo provided by research team). |
The meteorite was in a state of partial surface loss and polished by fierce polar winds. With modern tools, the research team decoded the mysterious rock after more than four decades.
They found the presence of spherical and filamentous structures, possibly built by iron-oxidizing bacteria; organic matter; and numerous biominerals. Thus, the team suggests that a microbiome was at least once present on the meteorite's parent planet.
BlockThe meteorite, which originated from Mars, is estimated to be 175 million years old, with about 3 million years of exposure to cosmic rays.
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Mars, the meteorite's parent planet - (photo: NASA). |
This result is consistent with the hypotheses that NASA and many other planetary scientists and astronomers have put forward about life on Mars. NASA's rover has discovered"building blocks of life"ancient Mars and many previous studies have also suggested that ancient Mars once had water and an atmosphere sufficient for life – at least microorganisms – to survive.
New Hungarian research has just been published online in the scientific journalOpen Astronomy.
