Perseverance rover turned up biosignatures of what could be ancient microbial life on Mars.
More work is needed to bring stronger confirmation, but this is the best evidence yet of extraterrestrial life.
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NASA reports discovery of signs of ancient life on Mars
- Thread starter Gene2memE
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Perseverance rover turned up biosignatures of what could be ancient microbial life on Mars.
More work is needed to bring stronger confirmation, but this is the best evidence yet of extraterrestrial life.
Warden_of_the_Storm
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From the article:
"In higher-resolution images, the instruments found a distinct pattern of minerals arranged into reaction fronts (points of contact where chemical and physical reactions occur) the team called leopard spots. The spots carried the signature of two iron-rich minerals: vivianite (hydrated iron phosphate) and greigite (iron sulfide). Vivianite is frequently found on Earth in sediments, peat bogs, and around decaying organic matter. Similarly, certain forms of microbial life on Earth can produce greigite.
The combination of these minerals, which appear to have formed by electron-transfer reactions between the sediment and organic matter, is a potential fingerprint for microbial life, which would use these reactions to produce energy for growth. The minerals also can be generated abiotically, or without the presence of life. Hence, there are ways to produce them without biological reactions, including sustained high temperatures, acidic conditions, and binding by organic compounds. However, the rocks at Bright Angel do not show evidence that they experienced high temperatures or acidic conditions, and it is unknown whether the organic compounds present would’ve been capable of catalyzing the reaction at low temperatures."
So it could have been just a chemical reaction, or it could have been biological.
That's still neat no matter how you look at it.
"In higher-resolution images, the instruments found a distinct pattern of minerals arranged into reaction fronts (points of contact where chemical and physical reactions occur) the team called leopard spots. The spots carried the signature of two iron-rich minerals: vivianite (hydrated iron phosphate) and greigite (iron sulfide). Vivianite is frequently found on Earth in sediments, peat bogs, and around decaying organic matter. Similarly, certain forms of microbial life on Earth can produce greigite.
The combination of these minerals, which appear to have formed by electron-transfer reactions between the sediment and organic matter, is a potential fingerprint for microbial life, which would use these reactions to produce energy for growth. The minerals also can be generated abiotically, or without the presence of life. Hence, there are ways to produce them without biological reactions, including sustained high temperatures, acidic conditions, and binding by organic compounds. However, the rocks at Bright Angel do not show evidence that they experienced high temperatures or acidic conditions, and it is unknown whether the organic compounds present would’ve been capable of catalyzing the reaction at low temperatures."
So it could have been just a chemical reaction, or it could have been biological.
That's still neat no matter how you look at it.
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Larniavc
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I think they will find signs of previous life on Mars. In the before times of the long long ago Mars was a very different planet.
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Warden_of_the_Storm
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