KOMPAS.com - The fossilised remains of Martian bugs have been discovered on a meteorite that crashed into the Antarctic 13,000 years ago. The rock - named name Allen Hills 84001 - sparked a huge debate when it was found in 1996 and both Nasa and U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the possible discovery of life from Mars.
It was initially thought that the fossils were bacteria from Earth that contaminated the meteorite while it lay in the frozen wasteland. But according to a leaked report from Nasa, scientists now believe the fossilised remains originated on Mars.
Using advanced High Resolution Electron Microscopy not available 13 years ago, experts looked specifically at carbonate discs and magnetite crystals. The scientists, led by Kathie Thomas-Keprta, concluded that 'unusual chemical and physical properties' in the meteorite were 'intimately associated within and throughout these carbonate discs'.
This is evidence of interaction with water on Mars over 3.5billion years ago, they said. Dr Emily Baldwin, deputy editor of Astronomy Now magazine, told The Sun: 'Many scientists argued that what looked like fossils in the meteorite were really caused by the explosive event, such as an asteroid impact, that blasted the rock out of Mars in the first place.
'But the Nasa team is now saying they have proved that they could not have been produced by the blast itself.
'If the features turn out to have an extra-terrestrial, biological origin and were not formed during the 13,000 years the meteorite spent lying on Earth, this will have profound implications for our understanding of how life evolved in the solar system.'
Nasa is expected to make an announcement revealing the findings, from its Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, in the next few days.
Mars expert Professor Colin Pillinger, who was behind the failed Beagle 2 probe to the planet in 2003, told The Sun: 'This is good quality work and more compelling evidence to add to the mix.
'These guys have been plugging away at this for years. It is a very careful study by very reputable people.'
