Posted on 12/03/2014 6:49:23 AM PST by etl lll
A meteorite from Mars that landed on Earth in 2011 contains a carbon compound that is biological in origin.
(snip)
"We cannot and do not want to entirely exclude the possibility that organic carbon within Tissint may be of abiotic origin," Lin wrote, meaning the carbon maybe physical in origin rather than organic -- devoid of life.7
"It could be possible that the organic carbon originated from impacts of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. However, it is not easy to conceive bywhich processes chondritic carbon could have been selectively extracted from the impacting carbonaceous chondrites, selectively removed from the soil and later impregnated in the extremely fine rock veins."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Golly! Let’s throw gobs of money at and see if it’s true!
How can they possibly know with certainty that a meteorite came from a certain place?
Yes, we must all believe in abiogenesis.
It’s VERY important to the Humanist that extraterrestrial life be found.
How do we know it was from Mars when it lands on Earth?
Some people seem set on “proving” that life started off this planet.
Since they can’t tell us how life originated on Earth, they push the problem off to some unknown, undetermined far-away planet, where everything is unverifiable.
Sorry, guys. Earth life originated on Earth.
They know the meteorite is from mars because of the chemical makeup of it and isotopes that match those of mars. They came here when a comet or asteroid hit mars with enough force to eject it from the surface of mars. I do agree that scientists all seem to be hell bent into proving that life just happens randomly and often. God forbid they ever include God in their probability calculations.
I believe it’s done by comparing the chemical components of the meteorite to those of known samples of Martian rocks, as determined remotely by the Viking spacecraft in, I think, 1979.
Molecular chemistry and physics are very exacting sciences. Without commenting on the theory in this study I can say categorically that I have no doubt about the ability to identify the source of a meteorite, including one from Mars.
How do we know the meteorite came from Mars? Is it stamped on there somewhere, “Made on Mars?” How is it all these rocks go flying off of Mars? Does Mars have a gravity problem? I suspect these questions have academic answers leading to foregone conclusions, but I’m a dummy who needs some splainin’.
Can a collision jettison rocks at velocities greater than escape velocity?
carbon compound that is biological in origin................... OMG, its the Marsdromeda strain. We’re doomed!!
Since we only have a very limited scope of samples from other planets, isn’t it possible that the very same material could come from elsewhere?
I remember that my favorite Biology teacher (Ace Sanders) loved to stress that in science there are “NO ABSOLUTES” and that has stuck with me, for all of these years.
Because it makes a big earth shattering KABOOOOOM!!!
I wonder if Aliens have a similar Bible that we have. They would obviously have the same God as us, I would guess.
The chemical ‘signature’ of some rocks are like fingerprints or DNA. The odds are very good for a match to known Martian rocks from the 1970s Viking mission to Mars.
It's not the rocks per-se but the ratios of atmospheric gases contained within the rocks. Viking had no ability to identify rock composition, but the Mars Viking Mission (1976-1982) consisting of two Viking landers and two Viking orbiters did gather extensive atmospheric data. Since then that data has been expanded on by NASA missions consisting of the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter (1997-2006), the Mars Pathfinder rover and lander (1997) the Mars Odyssey orbiter (2001-present), the two Mars Exploration Rovers; Spirit (2004-2010) and Opportunity (2004-present), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006-present) and the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity (2011-present). Additionally the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter (2004-present) has been acquiring substantial atmospheric data as well.
Thanks for the infomative clarification.
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