NASA Finds Evidence of Water in Meteorite, Reviving Debate over Life on Red Planet

In a latest finding, a team of NASA scientists has found evidence of water on a Martian meteorite, which suggests that biological processes might have occurred on the Red Planet millions of years ago.

A new finding by scientists at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory reignites the debate over the existence of microbial life on the Red Planet.  Researchers have gathered evidence of early water movement throughout a Martian meteorite dubbed Yamato 000593 (Y000593) that was found at the Yamato Glacier in Antarctica.

The newly-found structures and compositional features seen within the massive Yamoto meteorite indicate that biological process might have occurred in the Martian world millions of years ago.

Analyses of this rock found by the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 2000 revealed that the rock was formed some 1.3 billion years ago on Mars in a lava flow on the Martian surface. An impact, roughly 12 million years back, expelled the rock from the surface of the Red Planet.  The rock landed on earth about 50,000 years ago.

The main of aim of this analysis was to find out whether the tunnels and the carbon rich spherules present within the meteorite were originally from Mars or were formed as a result of contamination on Earth, source Space.com.

"This is no smoking gun," said lead author, Lauren White, is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  "We can never eliminate the possibility of contamination in any meteorite. But these features are nonetheless interesting and show that further studies of these meteorites should continue."

The team noticed certain distinctive features. They spotted tunnels and micro tunnel structures that travel through the Yamato 000593. Also, they observed micro tunnels that resemble those seen in terrestrial basaltic glasses burrowed by microorganisms.

They found minute spherules that are clubbed between layers inside the rock are different from the carbonate and silicate layer, according to news release.

"The paper isn't really meant to identify if these features were formed from biotic or abiotic means, but rather to discover if these features are actually Martian in origin," White told Space.com in an email. "We compare this meteorite, Yamato - which was discovered in Antarctica - to another Martian meteorite, Nakhla, which fell in Egypt."

The spherical features seen within the 30 pound meteorite were similar to the Martian meteorite Nakhla that fell in 1911 in Egypt.

 The textural and compositional similarities to the terrestrial feature suggest that the Martian features were formed by biological activity.

"The unique features displayed within the Martian meteorite Yamato 000593 are evidence of aqueous alterations as seen in the clay minerals and the presence of carbonaceous matter associated with the clay phases which show that Mars has been a very active body in its past," said co-author Gibson. "The planet is revealing the presence of an active water reservoir that may also have a significant carbon component.

The findings are published in the journal Astrobiology.