NASA Scientists Revive Debate over Life on Mars

NASA scientists find evidence of past water movement throughout a Martian meteorite, reviving debate in the scientific community over life on Mars.

NASA scientists have found evidence of past water movement throughout a Martian meteorite, reviving debate in the scientific community over life on Mars.

In 1996, a group of scientists announced the discovery of evidence for previously living cells in the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite. In this new study, scientists focused on structures deep within a 13.7-kilogram Martian meteorite known as Yamato 000593. The team reports that structures and compositional features within the Yamato meteorite suggest biological processes might have been at work on Mars hundreds of millions of years ago.

Shown above is a scanning electron microscope image of the meteorite.

Analyses found that the rock was formed about 1.3 billion years ago from a lava flow on Mars. Around 12 million years ago, an impact occurred on Mars that ejected the meteorite from the surface. The meteorite traveled through space until it fell in Antarctica about 50,000 years ago.

The rock was found on the Yamato Glacier in Antarctica by the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 2000.

For more on the investigation of the meteorite and the Mars program, see this NASA press release.