Re: Martian microbe
Virginia Freire (freire@siu.edu)
Thu, 8 Aug 1996 09:54:02 -0500>At 07:29 AM 8/7/96 -0700, Steve wrote:
>
>>Good Morning America just did a report on the Martian microbe and apparently
>>the main evidence for Martian genesis is that the gasses trapped inside the
>>rock are identical to those found in the Martian atmosphere. The rock
>>apparently has come carbonates in it (implying the presence of water) and
>>some iron formations that are apparently identical to microbial excretia
>>found in rocks on the earth. In addition they have found structures that
>>look like microbial trace fossils and hydrocarbons consistent with the
>>existence of life. I am anxious to see a full report of the evidence.
>
>Looks like they have the complete paper online already at:
>
> http://www.aaas.org/science/mars/prerelease.htm
Its interesting, although way out of my field (chemistry terms - Yuck). I
looked up some cross references this morning with respect to the question;
How do we know that these rock are from Mars? Haven't read them all yet so
can't give a rundown but two papers look especially interesting:
McSween, H. Y. 1994. What we have learned about Mars from SNC meteorites.
Meteoritics 29: 757-779
This in an Invited Review paper that covers a wide array of topics and
discusses all the hypotheses. Necessarily technical but is very readable.
Gladman et al., 1996. The exchange of impact ejecta between terrestrial
planets. Science 271: 1387-1392.
Joel