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Credit & Copyright: D. McKay
(NASA
/JSC),
K. Thomas-Keprta
(Lockheed-Martin),
R. Zare
(Stanford),
NASA
Explanation:
Alien! Alien?
Is this what an ancient
Martian looked like? The tube-like form on the above
highly magnified
image is now believed by many to be a fossil of a
simple Martian organism
that lived over
3.6 billion years
ago. If this extraordinary claim is true,
this
alien
could hardly have been less intimidating as its fossil measures
less than 1/100th the width of a
human hair. A reconstruction of events
indicates that the meteorite that housed this potential
fossil was catapulted from
Mars
during a
huge impact 16 million years ago and fell to
Earth's
Antarctica only 13,000 years ago.
Evidence supporting
this claim of early
Martian life includes organic molecules and mineral features characteristic
of biological activity found in the meteorite.
NASA missions to
Mars in the
next few years include
Mars Global Surveyor and
Mars Pathfinder,
which may uncover data that help confirm or refute this
exciting claim.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day