Posted on 08/09/2004 10:36:21 PM PDT by null and void
DENVER, COLORADO -- A future astronaut traipsing across the landing sites of the Mars Exploration Rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – might be squishing into a welcome mat of microbes, according to one NASA scientist. ... Unfolding saga ... The observations... strongly suggested primitive life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago. ... Microbial mat ... The Mars rovers represent an incredibly successful mission, McKay said. Moreover, they seemingly have "uncovered" a major find. He points to pictures taken by the rovers that show areas of the martian surface disturbed by the retraction of landing airbags.
Patches of surface "acted as a cohesive blanket of some sort" when the airbags pulled back, McKay explains. "It wrinkled…and pulled along rocks with it. It didn’t simply crack apart like a dried-up crust."
Why the soil reacted in such a manner remains obscure, McKay admits. "But one possibility is that this is the fossilized remains of a biological mat of some sort," ... "I think there’s really something there," McKay told SPACE.com. "There is some cohesiveness to that material. ... "If you accept the hypothesis that what’s been seen is a microbial mat on Mars, is it an old one or a living one?"
On one hand, given moisture and becoming a little wetter than usual, a growing martian mat is conceivable. "One could also argue that it’s a very old mat, formed at the base of an ocean or lake. Perhaps it’s two billion years old. I have a lot of trouble figuring out how to tell those ideas apart," McKay said. ... "I would love of have had a video of that Magic Carpet being pulled up. That might have made the point incredibly strong," McKay concluded.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I can't see! I CAN'T SEE! HELP ME! (anyone know the number for nine one one)?
No kidding.
Would you do the honors and post the link to the photo gallery?
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