BRITISH FIND NEW EVIDENCE OF POSSIBLE MARTIAN LIFE
from CNN (cnn.com)
(CNN) -- There's new fuel for the debate over life on Mars.
British scientists Thursday said they found chemical traces in a meteorite that,
they say, are consistent with the presence of life on the red planet. In August,
NASA announced that it found evidence of former life on Mars in a 3.6
billion-year-old rock.
The Britons say they found organic matter in two meteorites -- one was the
meteorite tested by NASA and the other, a newly tested meteorite that crashed to
Earth 600,000 years ago. Scientists believe the rock itself is between 140
million and 160 million years old.
Researchers at London's Open University and London's Natural History Museum say
they found residues and chemicals in the rock that could only be formed by
living organisms.
"This is a smoking gun for life on Mars," said chemist Ian Wright, one of the
trio of scientists in the new study. "I believe we will be in a position soon to
study Martian metabolism."
"I believe I can say life existed -- and may still -- exist on Mars," Wright
added.
Astronomer Colin Pillinger, one of the researchers, told a news briefing
Thursday that he first presented chemical evidence from the meteorite (named
79001) in 1989 in the magazine Nature to suggest that life existed on Mars. But
other scientists criticized his findings, saying the matter found in the
meteorite could have been picked up on the meteorite's trip to Earth.
After the NASA scientists' announcement of their evidence from meteorite
AHL84001, Pillinger re-ran his experiment this month on several samples from
both meteorites.
This time, he said, he carried out his experiments on parts of 79001 that had
become sealed in a glass-like substance before the meteorite came to Earth, and
thus was insulated from the Earth's organic matter.
The most important finding, Pillinger said, is that 79001 contains significant
amounts of organic material -- up to 1,000 parts per million -- which has yet to
be identified.
"It would be incredibly egotistical to believe we are the only planet with life
on it," Pillinger said. "To think we are the only place uniquely selected for
life would be incredible."
Some scientists are still skeptical that these trace elements found in Martian
meteorites hold enough convincing proof to say that life has ever been present
on Mars.
NASA is trying to find out more by launching two missions to the planet this
year.
Steve Maran of the American Astronomical Society says the Mars probes weren't
built specifically to look for life on the planet.
"No one imagined that that was something to do at the time they were designed.
So we're going to have to be very clever on how we use them," he said.
Mars Global Surveyor is scheduled to launch next week and Pathfinder, which will
land on Mars, is set to take off in December.
AUFORA News Update
News, Information, Facts from the world of UFOlogy
To subscribe send e-mail to: dwatanab@acs.ucalgary.ca
AUFORA Web: http://www.aufora.org/
AUFORA News: http://www.aufora.org/news/
Distributed by The Alberta UFO Research Association
Back to UFO news update menu
All rights reserved to WUFOC and NÄRKONTAKT. If you reprint or quote any part of the content,
you must give credit to: WUFOC, the free UFO-alternative on the Internet, http://www.wufoc.com