by Walter Jayawardhana

A team ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  British university scientists have announced that they discovered signs of life in a meteorite recovered from a desert in Morocco.

The team ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ in a preliminary study published in the current issue of the Journal of Cosmology say the electronic microscope pictures taken by the team of the piece of meteorite show ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-signs of lifeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-In July 2011 a rare meteorite from Mars fell over the desserts of Morocco and was recovered fairly shortly afterwards in October at a location near the village of Tissint.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  This so-called Tissint meteorite was blasted off the surface of Mars by a comet or asteroid impact several million years agoƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, a press release issued by the Buckingham Center for Astrobiology said.

A piece of this rare meteorite has been examined by a team of scientists at the Buckingham C entre for Astrobiology and Cardiff University led by Jamie Wallis and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The team has completed a preliminary study and reported the discovery of signs of life in the meteorite in the current issue of the Journal of Cosmology (Jamie Wallis et al, 2012).

http://journalofcosmology.com/JOC18/TissintFinal.pdf

Spherical globules rich in Carbon and Oxygen have been discovered in the interior of the meteorite embedded in the rocky matrix,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  No reasonable explanation is available for these structures unless they have been produced by life, they claimed.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Jamie Wallis, a PhD student, who carried out the laboratory work on the meteorite said:ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Other work to confirm our proposal is well under way and all the indications are that structures such as we have found are evidence of life on Mars.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The spheres are probably remnants of polysaccharide shells surrounding algal type cells.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

Searches for life on Mars over the past ;4 decades have had a speckled record.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The results of the experiments carried out by NASAƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Viking Landers in 1976 under the leadership of Professor Gil Levin were regarded as indecisive or negative for a long time, but a recent reappraisal has led to the conclusion that the Viking results can only be interpreted as evidence for life.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  In 1996 the Mars meteorite ALH84001 turned up with images and spectra that were interpreted as signs of life, but late disputed as being inconclusive.

Fig ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” A carbon-oxygen rich particle in the interior of the Tissint meteorite:ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  An ovoid shaped carbon-oxygen rich globule cracking under gold coating in an SEM examination

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The new results on the Tissint meteorite could provide further compelling evidence for life on Mars ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” at any rate at the time the meteorite was blasted off from the planet millions of years ago the team claimed.

In a telephone interview Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe a lead scientist in the team said, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-A great deal of evidence has accumulated since the 1976 Viking Missions to Mars ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ produced positive results for life. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ NASA has continued to play down all such evidence, and to prevaricate on whether or not there is life on Mars. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This is possibly connected with funding – no life found may be thought to be a justification for more big money being spent on future Mars projects. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It seems ironical that the tipping point for a long-resisted paradigm shift turns on a simple microscope inspection of this new Mars meteorite. Similar situations are of course well documented in the history of science. Evidence accumulates against a reigning paradigm without effect until a single new observation turns the tide.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚