The Eternal Question : Life on Mars

Ever since the first Mars rover landed humankind has been waiting with baited breath to find evidence of life on Mars. The closest planet may have our closest alien life forms. While the researchers have found no little green men running around the red planet, there is a lot of small stuff that can not be ignored.

A meteorite from Mars discovered in the Yamato Glacier, Antarctica, by a Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 2000, has been under study at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Analysis of the meteorite showed that it was formed on the surface of Mars 1.3 billion years ago. Then some powerful impact event caused it to blast off into space along with other parts of the Martian crust.

These chunks then traveled through space eventually falling to Earth as meteorites. One of these samples,  named Y000593, were recovered from the Antarctic region and it shows speroidal features embedded in a layer of iddingsite, a mineral formed by action of water.

It could be evidence of some ancient biological process that was taking place on Mars so many centuries ago but does not conclusively prove that life on the red planet does indeed exist. Perhaps the Mars rovers will have better luck than this science project in answering that question.