The meteorite which may have microfossils in it came from

Researchers detected a so-called spectral signature pictured that is unique to phosphine — furthermore were able to estimated that the gas is present in Venus' clouds in an abundance of around 20 parts-per-billion. However, they were unable to determine the exactly source of the detected trace quantities of the gas.

On September 14, researchers announced Venus has traces of the biosignatures gas. They detected a so-called spectral signature that is unique to phosphine — and furthermore were able to estimated that the gas is present in Venus' clouds in an abundance of around 20 parts-per-billion. The team explored assorted ways that the gas could have been produced in this setting — including from sources on the surface of the planet, micrometeorites, lightning, or chemical processes happening within the clouds themselves.

However, they were unable to determine exactly what is the source of the detected trace quantities of the gas. The researchers have cautioned that the detection of phosphine is not itself robust evidence for alien microbial life — and only indicates that potentially unknown geological or chemical processes are occurring on the planet.

Further observations and modelling will be needed, they added, to better explore the origin of the gas in the planet's atmosphere. British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in when she spotted a radio pulsar. Since then other types of pulsars that emit X-rays and gamma rays have also been spotted. Pulsars are essentially rotating, highly magnetised neutron stars but when they were first discovered it was believed they could have come from aliens.

In , an astronomer looking for alien life in the night sky above Ohio spotted a radio signal so powerful that he excitedly wrote 'Wow! The second blast, spotted by Dr Jerry Ehman through a radio telescope, came from Sagittarius but matched no known celestial object. Conspiracy theorists have since claimed that the 'Wow! In Nasa and the White House made the explosive announcement that the rock contained traces of Martian bugs.

The meteorite, catalogued as Allen Hills ALH , crashed onto the frozen wastes of Antarctica 13, years ago and was recovered in Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike. Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike pictured.

However, the excitement did not last long. Other scientists questioned whether the meteorite samples were contaminated. They also argued that heat generated when the rock was blasted into space may have created mineral structures that could be mistaken for microfossils. Hoover Hoover presented several dramatic images and the associated EDAX spectral data of living and fossil cyanobacteria haloalkaliphilic mats, the Cambrian phosphorites of Khubsughul, Mongolia for comparison with the recent discoveries in the Orgueil and Murchison carbonaceous meteorites.

Evidence for possible microfossils in meteorites was previously reported in numerous papers by many scientists Nagy, Claus, Timofeyev, Van Landingham, Palik, McKay, Rozanov, Hoover, etc. These results have previously been attacked by critics, who have argued to dismiss them on the basis that they were too small to represent living organisms or that they must be mineral grains, artifacts produced by coating the sample, or recent pollen or fungal contaminants that were introduced during acid maceration, cleaning, or while the specimen was lying in some museum drawer.

Hoover detailed his extensive sample handling and contamination prevention protocols and described the chemical and microbiological rational why these lithified and carbonized remains could not be logically dismissed as recent contaminants. He also discussed the the microbiology, bioenergetics and life habits of phototrophic and chemilithotrophic bacteria, the chemical compositions and mode of preseveration of the microbial remains, and the ecological, environmental, reproductive, and community association aspects of the microbial communities of cyanobacterial mats such as those found in the meteorites that indicate the forms discovered can not be logically dismissed as either mineral grains or post-arrival microbial contaminants.

Cosmic impacts on Mars can be powerful enough to blast rocks off the Red Planet, a fraction of which crash on Earth, the moon and other bodies in the solar system. The meteorite was first discovered in by geologists riding snowmobiles through the Allan Hills region of Antarctica.

Scientists think ALH originally formed 4 billion years ago on Mars and landed on Earth about 13, years ago. Such magnetite particles are not known or expected to be produced by nonbiological abiotic processes. As such, the study team members said these crystals might constitute evidence of the oldest life-forms known, with profound implications for the presence of life in the universe.

Soon after the announcement was made, Timothy Swindle, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, conducted an informal poll of more than scientists to see how the scientific community felt about the claims. Still, these claims drew major questions. Decades later, scientists are still dueling over these and similar finds. Elemental distributions of these embedded filaments are not consistent with recent cyanobacteria or other living or preserved microbial extremophiles that have been investigated during this research.

The meteorite filaments often have nitrogen content below the sensitivity level of the EDS detector. The meteorite forms that are unambiguously recognizable as biological filaments are interpreted as indigenous microfossils analogous to several known genera of modem cyanobacteria and associated trichomic filamentous prokaryotes.

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