Asteroid Impact Glass May Reveal Ancient Life on Mars

In a new study, scientists have analyzed ancient materials preserved astonishingly in glass generated by an asteroid's collision with the Earth.

According to BBC News, the scientists published their new study in the journal Geology. The samples were found in the Pampas in Argentina and represent a new way of looking into the environmental history of other planets, Mars in particular.

Mean while back on the planet Earth: Professor Steven Benner "Life on Earth came from elements that arrived from Mars on a Martian meteorite,.”

An element believed to be crucial to the origin of life would only have been available on the surface of the Red Planet, it is claimed. Geochemist Professor Steven Benner outlined his theory that the “seeds” of life probably arrived on Earth in meteorites blasted off Mars by impacts or volcanic eruptions.

All living things are made from organic matter, but simply adding energy to organic molecules will not create life. Instead, left to themselves, organic molecules become something more like tar or asphalt, said Prof Benner told the conference. He described the oxidised mineral form of the element molybdenum, believed to be a catalyst that fostered the development of organic molecules into the first living structures.

“It’s only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidised that it is able to influence how early life formed,” said Prof Benner, from The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in the USA. “This form of molybdenum couldn’t have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because three billion years ago the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did. “It’s yet another piece of evidence which makes it more likely life came to Earth on a Martian meteorite, rather than starting on this planet.”

He added: “Certain elements seem able to control the propensity of organic materials to turn to tar, particularly boron and molybdenum, so we believe that minerals containing both were fundamental to life first starting. “Analysis of a Martian meteorite recently showed that there was boron on Mars; we now believe that the oxidised form of molybdenum was there too.”

Study: Life On Earth May Have Started On Mars American Voices • Opinion • ISSUE 49•36 • Sep 3, 2013 5315337According to scientist Steven Benner, conditions on Mars 3 billion years ago were more conducive than those on Earth to creating one of the earliest molecules of life, RNA, and that meteorites may have transported these molecules to Earth’s surface. What do you think?

Could Martian Life Have Seeded the Earth?

The astronauts who blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour this morning weren't alone—thousands of travelers are accompanying them. These passengers are a collection of microorganisms, and this morning's launch was the beginning of a trip that could show the plausibility of an even more amazing journey: Microbes traveling from Mars to Earth billions of years ago to seed our planet with life.

For the collection of five hardy species—including the radiation-resistant "water bear" and Halomonadaceae bacteria, which can survive in high-salt environments—traveling to the International Space Station and back aboard Endeavour is the first leg of a long journey. Bruce Betts, a project director at the Planetary Society, is one of the scientists planning to send a similar set of organisms, plus a few additional species, all the way to a Martian moon as part of the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment. The society has reserved a spot on the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission ("grunt" means soil in Russian), which is set to take off for Mars' moon Phobos this November. By practicing on Endeavour, the scientists will ensure that things run as smoothly as possible as the microorganisms make their way to Mars.

This trip is intended as a test of the transpermia hypothesis: that Mars may have held life billions of years ago, and that organisms could have survived the trip to Earth and seeded this planet with life. Those organisms may have invaded the Earth by traveling inside rocks that were blasted off the Martian surface by meteorites. "Whether you can populate planets from other planets is one of the more profound questions," Betts says. "It's intriguing, and it's worth understanding whether the theory is really plausible."

Wayne Nicholson, a microbiologist at the University of Florida, says that evidence so far suggests it's possible. Mars and Earth have exchanged millions of tons rocks, and that exchange has mostly been from Mars to Earth. Earthly microbes can live inside rock, and microbes launched into space (both by accident and for research purposes) have lived to tell the tale—they survive particularly well when sheltered within soil or rock. Laboratory tests show microbes can even survive the shock of crash-landing on a planet after traveling through space.

But, Nicholson says, no experiment has ever gone this far: "There has never been an experiment where organisms have been exposed to the deep space environment, between planets, for such a long period of time." While previous studies have launched microbes into space, sometimes inadvertently, he says that most of those samples never left low-Earth orbit. By remaining within the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic fields, those organisms were partially shielded from the damaging effects of cosmic radiation. The few missions that transported microbes beyond Earth orbit did so for only a few days at a time—a far cry from the years required for interplanetary travel.

The microorganisms' trip to Phobos and back will be a bit more complicated than the shuttle flight. Samples of each organism will enjoy the flight separately from inside sealed tubes. The tubes will be wrapped in a titanium shell that's about the size of a hockey puck, with four strong seals to prevent any contamination of Mars or its moons with Earthly life.

The microbes will ride inside the Russian spacecraft in a dormant form—the excruciating conditions of interplanetary space causes the microorganisms to shut down most of their functions, as during hibernation. And although they won't be directly exposed to the space vacuum, they will suffer high levels of radiation exposure and temperature extremes on their three-year journey. According to the Planetary Society, these conditions will simulate the conditions the microorganisms would encounter if they were traveling toward Earth inside a rock that came from Mars.

The Phobos-Grunt mission's main goal is to collect soil and rock samples. Once that's done, it will blast its sample container (including the microorganisms and the rock samples) to a designated landing spot in Kazakhstan. Since the experiment will come hurtling back to Earth at 4000 g's, the titanium container is built to be nearly indestructible.

If the microbes survive their trip to Mars and back, it won't mean for sure that Earthly organisms are descended from Martians—but it does leave that possibility open. "However it turns out, it is going to be interesting," Nicholson says.



Read more: - Space Shuttle Endeavour Final Flight - Popular Mechanics http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/moon-mars/could-martian-life-have-seeded-the-earth