By ROBERT SEELY
.c The Associated Press
LONDON (Oct. 31) - British scientists have found more signs that life may
have existed on Mars, saying Thursday that a second meteorite millions of
years younger than one studied by NASA has organic material that could be
traces of living organisms.
''These findings offer the strongest support yet for the hypothesis that
life once existed on the planet,'' astronomer Colin Pillinger said at a news
conference.
In August, NASA scientists said they had found microscopic and chemical
evidence of life on Mars in meteorite ALH 84001, which dates back about 3.6
billion years.
Pillinger and his colleagues from Britain's The Open University studied
pieces of that meteorite, and of another, EETA 79001, which was formed 180
million years ago and blown into space about 600,000 years ago. The
meteorites were found in Antarctica in 1979 and 1984.
Pillinger's discoveries have not been reviewed by other scientists.
Doug Blanchard, head of a NASA research group, said although he hadn't
seen the full British report, the findings are exciting and support the idea
that life might still exist on Mars.
Blanchard, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the fact that the
meteorite examined by the London group is much younger than the one NASA
scientists looked at - and that both may have evidence of life - suggests
that life could have continued on Mars for much longer than previously
thought - and perhaps still be there.
The British scientists said their evidence is based on the existence of
organic and carbonate matter found in both meteorites.
''Whenever you come across organic matter, it is usually evidence of
life,'' Pillinger said.
Pillinger said that in 1989, in the magazine Nature, he first presented
chemical evidence from meteorite 79001 to suggest that life existed on Mars.
Those results were criticized by other scientists who said the organic
matter discovered 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
AHL 84001, 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.
The scientists also found in 84001 tiny amounts of carbonate the
composition of which suggests it was formed from methane - a gas often
produced by microorganisms.
In addition, the composition was similar to that of organic matter in
rocks where the Earth's oldest fossils are found.
The other scientists involved in the project were Ian Wright and Monica
Grady. Grady, who is with the Natural History Museum, said a third meteorite
from Mars, stored at the museum since 1913, would be made available to
researchers.
NASA's Blanchard said the London group's findings in the meteorite ALH
84001 seem to support the interpretation made by NASA's McKay group in
August.
''Those carbon isotopes are part of what we have both looked for. They
could be good indicators of life.'' The fact that two teams now have found
the isotopes ''is very encouraging,'' Blanchard said.
''We are quite pleased that other people are finding evidence.''
Blanchard said he also is more hopeful that life might be found on Mars
by the spacecraft being launched toward the Red Planet next year.
''If the objective is to find life when you get to Mars, this an
important step in the right direction,'' he said.
Dr. William Schopf, professor of Paleobiology at the University of
California, Los Angeles, said the occurrence of organic matter, ''if it is
really established to be from Mars, is really interesting and highly
significant.''
He had not seen the British study and would not comment on specifics, but
said it would be surprising if the biochemistry of Mars and Earth would be
similar enough to produce very similar evidence, like the production of
methane.
''These things reflect a set of specific biochemical 'tricks' that Earth
organisms do,'' he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
''Why is it that Martian life does similar tricks to Earth life?'' he
asked. ''If life arose independently you wouldn't necessarily expect that
Mars life would do what Earth life does.''
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