Meteorite, Proof of Mars Life!

ALH84001 - The Life on Mars meteorite

On August 7, 1996, an historic press conference was held at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. News that scientists had found evidence of life in a Mars meteorite ALH84001 had leaked out, and NASA had to make an announcement. A few minutes before, President Clinton made these remarks at the White House before heading out on a trip to California:



"This is the product of years of exploration and months of intensive study by some of the world's most distinguished scientists. Like all discoveries, this one will and should continue to be reviewed, examined and scrutinized. It must be confirmed by other scientists... I am determined that the American space program will put its full intellectual power and technological prowess behind the search for further evidence of life on Mars."

At the press conference, several scientists from NASA and Stanford University announced their findings -- they confirmed that they had found evidence of ancient, fossilized, microscopic life from a Martian meteorite, known as ALH84001.



When they cut it open and examined it with an electron microscope they found what you see below.



The photograph below shows orange-colored carbonate mineral globules found in a meteorite, called ALH84001, believed to have once been a part of Mars. These carbonate minerals in the meteorite are believed to have been formed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago. Their structure and chemistry suggest that they may have been formed with the assistance of primitive, bacteria-like living organisms.



More Photos from NASA

A research team led by Dr. Imre Friedmann at NASA's Ames Research Center has provided additional evidence supporting the view that these crystals could only have been formed by living organisms.

It is important to note that members of Friedmann's research team include scientists such as Dennis Bazylinski and Joseph Kirschvink who have been studying magentotactic bacteria for decades. As such it is rather notable that they would co-author a paper that states: "Unless there is an unknown and unexplained inorganic process on Mars that is conspicuously absent on the Earth and forms truncated hexa-octahedral magnetites, we suggest that these magnetite crystals in the Martian meteorite ALH84001 were likely produced by a biogenic process. As such, these crystals are interpreted as Martian magneto-fossils and constitute evidence of the oldest life yet found."

One major objection has been that the magnetite crystals could have come from bacteria which infiltrated the rock after it landed on Earth.

However, Dr Friedmann said the crystals were from Mars, because they are inside other globules of rock whose origin is uncontested.

As word rampantly spread through the media, NASA said they made a mistake and the meteorite didn�t contain life. Talk about a 180� turnaround. The recent discovery that liquid water once existed on mars further supports the findings of the original scientists that fossilized microscopic life has been found in the meteorite. I think NASA is attempting to cover-up this discovery.

Links:

Mars rock has signs of life, expert says.
NASA Announces New Evidence Regarding Past Life on Mars.
From Mars to Earth in a Meteorite?




[Edited on 9-3-2004 by kinglizard]

[Edited on 9-3-2004 by kinglizard]

[edit on 6/2/2008 by kinglizard]

Didnt they dubunk that asteroid saying that the "life" forms on it where from earth?

Originally posted by Omega Pickle
Didnt they dubunk that asteroid saying that the "life" forms on it where from earth?

One major objection has been that the magnetite crystals could have come from bacteria which infiltrated the rock after it landed on Earth.

However, Dr Friedmann said the crystals were from Mars, because they are inside other globules of rock whose origin is known to be Mars.

[Edited on 10-3-2004 by kinglizard]

Hey, the Discovery channel is talking about the meteorite and how we define life. It's on now, don't know if they will run it again.

[Edited on 14-3-2004 by kinglizard]

They already debunked this as being not extraterrestrial life. I'd strongly suggest you read the book Deception Point when looking at issues with this. It deals with ET and a meteorite, etc. Very good read.

reply to post by Faisca


...how can you tell me a Dan Brown book is debunking this meteorite?

We have used antibodies to detect category 1 and other biomarkers in rock samples. Extraction takes a few minutes and analysis a few hours. We have presented use of new antibodies to detect hopanes and have shown proof of operation during Martian gravity.

The analysis of the carbon in AHL84001 carbonate globules is organic carbon. The C-ring analyzed is consistent with the detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) associated with the carbonate globules. We found that carbon was approximately uniformly distributed throughout the carbonate, although the C-ring and C=O to total carbon (which is mainly in carbonate) is highest in the rim carbonate.

nai.arc.nasa.gov...

[edit on 8-12-2007 by anhinga]