Martian Meteorite Unlocking Secrets of the Red PlanetA meteorite that landed in Morocco in July 2011
Martian Meteorite Unlocking Secrets of the Red PlanetA meteorite that landed in Morocco in July 2011 is helping unlock the secrets of the red planet. The Tissint meteorite was originally formed on Mars around 600 million years ago. This was a typical martian volcanic rock until it was launched off the red planet by an asteroid impact. University of Alberta researcher Chris Herd estimates this rock traveled through space from between 700,000 and 1 million years before the earth happened to get in the way.The research team was able to match trace gases from the meteorite to samples taken by the Viking lander in 1976. This finding leads to the question, if the gases from Mars can survive in a meteorite after an impact, traveling billions of kilometers, and a million years in space, what else might be able to survive.Panspermia is the theory that life, or the ingredients for life, can be spread by impact ejecta, like the Tissint meteorite, asteroids, or comets. Organic chemistry is known to be common in space; amino acids have even been found in meteorites on earth. But could a life form survive all this? It is still up for much debate but the idea is gaining more and more acceptance the more we learn.-AWSources/Extra Readinghttp://science.time.com/2012/10/11/could-martian-bacteria-have-seeded-earth/http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121011141439.htm -- source link
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