Life on Mars 4 billion years ago?? Where was it published?
a rose
andreas.rose at biologie.uni-regensburg.de
Thu Aug 8 16:50:27 EST 1996
Greetings again,
I just checked Science's homepage and found what may well be the article
under:
http://www.aaas.org/science/mars/924/924.html
but the place is so busy that I never get more than the abstract before I
am dropped. They say that the final version will be published in Science
on 16 August 1996.
So far, here is the abstract I got:
Search for Past Life on Mars: Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian
Meteorite ALH84001
David S. McKay, Everett K. Gibson Jr., Kathie L. Thomas-Keprta,
Hojatollah Vali, Christopher S. Romanek, Simon J. Clemett, Xavier D. F.
Chillier, Claude R. Maechling, Richard N. Zare
Fresh fracture surfaces of the martian meteorite ALH84001 contain bundant
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These fresh fracture surfaces
also display carbonate globules. Contamination studies suggest that the
PAHs are indigenous to the meteorite. High-resolution scanning and
transmission electron microscopy study of surface textures and internal
structures of selected carbonate globules show that the globules contain
fine-grained, secondary phases of single-domain magnetite and e-sulfides.
The carbonate globules are similar in texture and size to some
terrestrial bacterially induced carbonate precipitates. Although
inorganic formation is possible, formation of the globules by biogenic
processes could explain many of the observed features, including the
PAHs. The PAHs, the carbonate globules, and their associated secondary
mineral phases and textures could thus be fossil remains of a past
martian biota.
(Did I just violate some copyright law?) Anyway, I guess I'll have to try
again when it's late at night in America to get the complete article.
Cheers,
Andreas
--
Andreas M. Rose, Dipl. Biol.
Zoologie * Universitaet Regensburg * D-93040 Regensburg * Germany * EU
phone: +49-941-943-3076 * fax: +49-941-943-3052
http://www.biologie.uni-regensburg.de/Zoologie/Boeckh/Rose/index.htm
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