Emmanuel Barraud
EPFL NewsTue, 02 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
Did Mars ever have life? Does it still? A meteorite from Mars has reignited the old debate. An international team that includes scientists from EPFL has published a paper in the scientific journal Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences,
showing that martian life is more probable than previously thought."So far, there is no other theory that we find more compelling," says Philippe Gillet, director of EPFL's Earth and Planetary Sciences Laboratory. He and his colleagues from China, Japan and Germany performed a detailed analysis of organic carbon traces from a Martian meteorite, and have concluded that they have a very probable biological origin. The scientists argue that carbon could have been deposited into the fissures of the rock when it was still on Mars by the infiltration of fluid that was rich in organic matter.
Ejected from Mars after an asteroid crashed on its surface, the meteorite, named Tissint, fell on the Moroccan desert on July 18, 2011, in view of several eyewitnesses. Upon examination, the alien rock was found to have small fissures that were filled with carbon-containing matter. Several research teams have already shown that this component is organic in nature. But they are still debating where the carbon came from.
Maybe biological, but not from our planetChemical, microscopic and isotope analysis of the carbon material led the researchers to several possible explanations of its origin. They established characteristics that unequivocally excluded a terrestrial origin, and showed that
the carbon content were deposited in the Tissint's fissures before it left Mars.
The researchers challenged previously described views (Steele et al.,
Science, 2012) proposing that the carbon traces originated through the high-temperature crystallization of magma. According to the new study, a more likely explanation is that
liquids containing organic compounds of biological origin infiltrated Tissint's "mother" rock at low temperatures, near the Martian surface.These conclusions are supported by several intrinsic properties of the meteorite's carbon, e.g. its ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12. This was found to be significantly lower than the ratio of carbon-13 in the CO2 of Mars's atmosphere, previously measured by the Phoenix and Curiosity rovers. Moreover, the difference between these ratios corresponds perfectly with what is observed on Earth between a piece of coal - which is biological in origin - and the carbon in the atmosphere. The researchers note that this organic matter could also have been brought to Mars when very primitive meteorites - carbonated chondrites - fell on it. However, they consider this scenario unlikely because such meteorites contain very low concentrations of organic matter.
"Insisting on certainty is unwise, particularly on such a sensitive topic," warns Gillet. "I'm completely open to the possibility that other studies might contradict our findings.
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: Lin Yangtin et. al, "Nanosims Analysis Of Organic Carbon From The Tissint Martian Meteorite: Evidence For The Past Existence Of Subsurface Organic-Bearing Fluids On Mars,"
Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences, December 2014,
DOI.
Comment: So there could have been "little green men" on Mars after all? How interesting. But what is more interesting is that after decades of adamant denial and ridicule, suddenly mainstream science is allowed to release information about a real possibility of extraterrestrial life on other planets? Even if this life is only some kind of "organic matter"? We don't want to take the conspiratorial route, we just wonder if this could be a preparation for much more "revealing" news? Or, perhaps, the psychopaths in power decided that concealing the
real nature of all the recent
Earth changes is much more important than life on Mars. In any case, if you are open minded enough, take a look at the following
forum section and search for Mars for more clues.
Read Richard C Hoagland and Mike Bara' book "Dark Mission", and all the BS will be revealed.
NASA has lied about everything, including MARS, remember the Face on Mars, NASA said it was just a trick of light and shadow...............yeah right.