Hello Listers, There is a great documentary by National Geographic / Naked Science called Alien Falls which the bulk of the episode is about the Grimsby meteorite fall but there is a five minute segment concerning the ALH84001 meteorite. David McKay, astrobiologist from NASA Johnson Space Center and his team of scientist go into great detail in explain how magnetites found in the ALH84001 meteorite could possibly be fossils from bacteria from Mars.
In the video, McKay explains this process by stating that his scientific team found within the ALH84001 meteorite golden spherical shaped disks called carbonates, which could indicate that these carbonates came from an environment where there was water or is water. Within the carbonates the scientists found magnetite chains that resemble magnetite chains found in magnetotactic bacteria on Earth. McKay in the documentary believes that’s these magnetite chains could be traces of bacteria fossils from Mars. On Earth when a magnetotactic bacteria decay, what is left is a magnetite chain, which could suggest that these chains found in the carbonates from ALH84001 meteorite could be an indication that they came from bacteria that formed in or around water. With the proof that there was water on Mars and that there might still be water on Mars one could conclude that at one time, there might have been life on that red, desolate, planet we call Mars which has been around since the birth of the solar system, 4.6 billion years ago. That is a lot of time for the life and death of any species or bacteria to form, live, die, and decay. I wonder how long it would take the Earth to rot away to its true natural state if the atmosphere and magnetic field was gone? One million years and all signs of civilization could be erased and only mother Earths raw natural state to show for… Something to think about when considering if life does or did existed elsewhere. Earth 4.6 billion years…. Universe about 14 billion years and counting. Shawn Alan IMCA 1633 eBaystore http://shop.ebay.com/photophlow/m.html [meteorite-list] ALH 84001 E.P. Grondine epgrondine at yahoo.com Sun Mar 6 16:05:33 EST 2011 Previous message: [meteorite-list] Contest - Name this person, win a free shergottite specimen! Next message: [meteorite-list] ID card/website/etc Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi all - Some of you may remember several years back my several part tale of my dramatic involvement (and lack therof) in the breaking of the ALH84001 fossils story. For what its worth, I think that those strcutures are fossils, based on my conversation at that time with Dr. MacKay's SEM specialist. He found that the PHAs were bound by the structures' walls, and the later finds of magnetite grains in the structure appear to me as a below surface sensory mechanism. I tend to go with Marc on this news, and with his analysis of how the error occured. E.P. Grondine Man and Impact in the Americas -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previous message: [meteorite-list] Contest - Name this person, win a free shergottite specimen! Next message: [meteorite-list] ID card/website/etc Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More information about the Meteorite-list mailing list ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
