Month: December 2009

  • What does the Mars rock ALH84001 tell us?

    You may not believe there were Marians but you may think there were living things on Mars.

    [Popular Science] The Mars rock ALH4001 famously contained what some believe are fossils of Martian nano-bacteria, as well as some biological material--but whether these are in fact Martian in origin or the result of Earthly contamination has yet to be solidly confirmed. Additionally, SETI continues to harness computers and telescopes worldwide, searching for signals from intelligent life, and the Voyager probes have left our solar system with solid gold records that serve as a message for any ET that happens to find them.  [http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/five-potential-discoveries-could-top-walking-moon?page=1Five Human Achievements That Could Top Walking on the Moon popsci.com7.20.2009 at 4:23 pm]

    The existence of living form in Mars is very important to us, it tells us: we are not alone. What happens if the aliens are aggressive and they are well-equipped with advanced weapons?

    【明報專訊】美國    《大眾科學》網站報道,美國太空總署一個科學家小組,近日通過最新研究數據,初步證明火星上曾經存在生命。科學家們甚至聲稱,火星生命可能曾經登陸過地球,它們不一定是火星人,但至少是一種古微生物形態。太空總署計劃日內正式宣布這一重大發現。

    早在1996年,他們就提出其中的微型化石結構,是生命存在的證據,該隕石晶體結構中約有25%確實是由細菌形成的。該編號為ALH84001的隕石由於小行星的撞擊,從火星表面脫落,在太空漂泊長達1600萬年後降落在地球的南極洲。由於該隕石的化學構成與20世紀70年代採集的火星大氣樣本分析符合,可以斷定來自火星。同時,該隕石中還提供了火星可能存在液態水的證據,表明火星可能曾經擁有更適宜生物生存的環境條件。小組同時還在研究另外兩塊火星隕石,分別是1911年落在埃及    的Nakhla和同樣落在南極洲的Yamato593。科學家稱,這兩塊隕石中同樣含有微生物迹象。

    資料來源: 火星墜落隕石 內藏古微生物 科學家:生命存在證據 (明報)2009年11月28日 星期六 05:15 http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/091127/4/fdu5.html