A group of meteorite hunters spotted a dark rock in the ice of the South Pole. An analysis of the gases trapped in the rock showed that it was from Mars.
It was formed from cooling lava and was in contact with water for a short time. 16 million years ago was when the world was formed. The asteroid hit Mars at a high rate of speed. A blue-green planet got in the way of one of the pieces leaving Mars and going to the Sun. Someone spotted it on the southern part of the country. It was located in the Allan Hills region.
It was the subject of a media frenzy after a NASA press conference said that it might have evidence of Martian life. It is possible that meteorites from Mars can preserve evidence of life and bring it to Earth. The weakest link in the claim was that there were little fossil-like worm thingies in it. The mineral magnetite was found in the rock and looked like it came from Earth. The kind of chemistry called organic was also found. They can be produced geologically or through other processes.
The evidence pointing toward life in the meteorite was incorrect and the speculation that it might contain Martianbacteria waned.
The paper looked at the chemistry of the rock in a number of ways. No, the conclusion for life.
The scientists looked at a part of it that contained magnetite. Evidence for short-term exposure to water was found. They found that the mineral structures were better explained through two processes called serpentenization, where water intrudes on a mineral and gets incorporated into its crystal structure, and carbonization, which occurs when acidic water interacts with rocks and deposits carbonates.
These processes are geological. The carbon dioxide in the water was the main source of carbon. Carbonization is more common on Earth because of life. It is more likely to be abiotic on Mars than it is on any other planet.
That is a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't long after the NASA presser that it became clear the evidence of biology wasn't very strong.
This isn't a boring rock. It is one of the oldest parts of Mars and the oldest we have seen with these processes. There is evidence of carbonization on the planet, but it is not in older areas. Water flowed on Mars, and it was slightly acidic, at least in the spot ALH 8401).
There is a piece of Mars that fell in 2011. It was formed 600 million years ago and blasted off Mars a million years later. Even though it is far younger, it shows some of the same features as ALH 84001, which shows that some geological processes on Mars continued to make organic molecule for a long time.
There is a chance of a tie-in to life. Life on Earth is based on organic molecules that were created geologically. This isn't to say that there is life on Mars. We don't know if it can exist without those molecule. We now know why these do exist on Mars.
Learning more about the geology, mineralogy, and chemistry of Mars will help us understand our own planet better. If we can ever hope to be self-sufficient, we need to know what is happening on Mars.
We've learned a lot by observing it through telescopes. It is difficult and expensive to send us samples from Mars. We will learn a lot more about this strange planet.
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