Tiny Blobs and Tunnels in Meteorite Revive Debate Over Life on Mars.

Eighteen years after a Martian meteorite sparked a debate over alien-looking "nanofossils," researchers are reporting that different structures inside an even bigger space rock suggest biological processes might have been at work on the Red Planet hundreds of millions of years ago.

"We're convinced that this is another one of the important data points that is going toward answering the big question: Was there life on Mars?" Everett Gibson, a researcher at NASA's Johnson Space Center who was involved in both studies, told NBC News.

He made clear, however, that even the latest study won't settle the big question. "We don't come out and say we have found life on Mars," Gibson said.

Microscopic structures

Gibson and his colleagues focused on microscopic structures deep within a 30-pound (13.5 kilogram) meteorite known as Yamato 000593, which was found in Antarctica by a Japanese team in 2000. An analysis of the rock's composition showed that it was formed on Mars about 1.3 billion years ago and altered by interaction with water on Mars. Scientists say the rock was blasted into space by a cosmic impact and fell to Earth within the past 10,000 years.

In February's issue of the journal Astrobiology, the research team — led by Lauren White of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — describes microscopic tunnels that thread their way through the meteorite's interior, as well as tiny blobs of carbon-rich minerals that are embedded within layers of rock.

This photomicrograph shows bands of minerals inside a meteorite from Mars, including "micro-tunnels" that researchers say are suggestive of microbial weathering.

The red circle in this photomicrograph highlights spherules in a meteorite from Mars that are enriched in carbon, compared with the background material indicated within the blue circle.

The team says such structures are suggestive of ancient weathering through biological processes. If the meteorite had come from the bottom of Earth's oceans, "we'd say, 'Gee, this rock contains evidence that there was microbial activity that was eating away at the rock,'" Gibson said.

The researchers emphasize that they "cannot exclude the possibility that the carbon-rich regions in both sets of features" are the product of non-biological processes. However, they say the "textural and compositional similarities to features in terrestrial samples, which have been interpreted as biogenetic, imply the intriguing possibility that the Martian features were formed by biotic activity."

White told NBC News that she didn't want to make any "life on Mars" claim prematurely. "I definitely don't think this is a 'smoking gun' paper," she said. "I want the reader to decide in the context of everything that we show."

Revisiting controversy

A similar tale was told in 1996 about a Martian meteorite known as ALH84001. Back then, researchers said that chemical analysis as well as wormlike features they called nanofossils supported their view that life was once present. The report caused a sensation — but other experts insisted that the features weren't biological in origin. As a result, the "life on Mars" claims faded into scientific limbo.

Since then, Gibson and other researchers who were involved in the original ALH84001 study have been trying to gather more evidence for their case. White joined the team as a summer-session researcher in 2007 and was asked to take a close look at Yamato 000593. "Who's going to turn that down, right?" she said.

White was intrigued by the micro-tunnels and the spherules, and worked with other researchers to determine they were similar to geological features on Earth created through biological processes. The key challenge was to show that the features were the result of activity on Mars rather than earthly contamination. "Whatever these are, they definitely came from Mars," White said.

One of the paper's authors was NASA scientist David McKay, who took center stage during the controversy over ALH84001. McKay died a year ago after a long struggle with heart problems. His health difficulties complicated the years-long publication process.

"He was actually working on this paper the day he passed away," White said. "I promised his wife that I would publish this paper, because it meant so much to him to keep this work going."

Skepticism persists

Most planetary scientists accept the view that Mars was once warmer, wetter and more Earthlike — and thus more hospitable to life — than it is today. It's also plausible to suggest that if life did exist on ancient Mars, it should have left characteristic traces in rocks from the Red Planet. But the evidence laid out in the Astrobiology paper isn't likely to settle the controversy.

"I don't think the science community will find 'textural and compositional similarities' compelling enough to be proof of a biological origin," Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA's Ames Research Center and no relation to David McKay, told NBC News in an email.

We have our critics, and that's what science is all about."

Gibson acknowledged that the case for life on Mars is far from closed. "We have our critics, and that's what science is all about," he said.

He and his colleagues are following up on their findings with more detailed chemical analysis. "We have to go to the next step of going in there and tearing these carbon molecules apart," Gibson said.

NASA's Curiosity rover is searching for evidence of organic carbon on the Red Planet. But to settle the big question conclusively will probably require bringing fresh rock samples back from Mars and analyzing them on Earth with high-precision scientific instruments. That could take a decade or more.

"Until that time, we need to use the best thing we have," Gibson said, "and that's the meteorites from Mars."

In addition to White, Gibson and McKay, the authors of "Putative Indigenous Carbon-Bearing Alteration Features in Martian Meteorite Yamato 000593"include Kathie Thomas-Keprta and Simon Clemett.

NBC News' Alan Boyle will discuss the latest from Mars as well as developments in commercial spaceflight from 10 to 11:30 p.m. ET Tuesday on "The Space Show," a live streaming-audio program hosted by Dr. David M. Livingston.

Source: NBC News

Water Found in Atmosphere of Nearby Alien Planet.

Water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere of one of the first alien planets ever identified by astronomers.

Advances in the technique used to scan the atmosphere of this "hot Jupiter" could help scientists determine how many of the billions of planets in the Milky Way contain water like Earth, researchers said.

The exoplanet Tau Boötis b was discovered in 1996, when the search for worlds outside our solar system was just kicking off. At about 51 light-years away, Tau Boötis b is one of the nearest known exoplanets to Earth. The planet is considered a "hot Jupiter" because it is a massive gas giant that orbits close to its parent star. [A Gallery of the Strangest Alien Planets]

To analyze the atmosphere surrounding Tau Boötis b, scientists looked at its faint glow. Different types of molecules emit different wavelengths of light, resulting in signatures known as spectra that reveal their chemical identify.

"The information we get from the spectrograph is like listening to an orchestra performance; you hear all of the music together, but if you listen carefully, you can pick out a trumpet or a violin or a cello, and you know that those instruments are present," study researcher Alexandra Lockwood, a graduate student at Caltech, explained in a statement.

"With the telescope, you see all of the light together, but the spectrograph allows you to pick out different pieces; like this wavelength of light means that there is sodium, or this one means that there’s water," Lockwood added.

Scientists have used spectrographic analyses to find water signatures on other alien planets before, but only when those worlds passed in front of their parent stars. Tau Boötis b does not transit in front of its parent star from our viewpoint on Earth, but Lockwood and colleagues were able to tease out the weak light emitted by the planet using the Near Infrared Echelle Spectrograph (NIRSPEC) at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Researchers had previously used a similar technique to find carbon monoxide around Tau Boötis b. That compound is thought to be the second-most common gas in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters, after hydrogen.

The new analysis showed that the glow of the planet's atmosphere matches the distinct molecular signature of water, the researchers say.

The spectrographic technique is presently limited to big planets orbiting closely to bright stars, like hot Jupiters, but it could eventually be used to study super-Earths (planets slightly larger than Earth) and worlds in the "habitable zone" around their parent stars, where liquid water and perhaps life as we know it could exist.

"While the current state of the technique cannot detect Earth-like planets around stars like the sun, with Keck it should soon be possible to study the atmospheres of the so-called 'super-Earth' planets being discovered around nearby low-mass stars, many of which do not transit," Caltech professor Geoffrey Blake said in a statement.

"Future telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will enable us to examine much cooler planets that are more distant from their host stars and where liquid water is more likely to exist," Blake added.

Astronomers found the first evidence of an exoplanet in 1992. Since then, more than 1,000 worlds have been discovered outside of our solar system, and many more await confirmation.

The new findings were detailed in the Feb. 24 online version of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The results are also freely available on the preprint service Arxiv.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @SPACEdotcom,Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

No Mars For Muslims? Mars One Asks Imams To Rescind Fatwa.

Martian colonization is a risky proposition. So risky, in fact, that a group of Islamic leaders in the United Arab Emirates issued a religious ruling saying Muslims should not go to the Red Planet. The General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment (GAIAE) ruling compares a Mars mission to suicide, and says that those who attempt it can expect the same consequences in the afterlife. In fact, GAIAE went so far as to claim that those seeking to escape God's judgment on Mars would be unable to do so, saying: "This is an absolutely baseless and unacceptable belief because not even an atom falls outside the purview of Allah, the Creator of everything."

Martian colonization is certainly dangerous. NASA's Curiosity rover has found water in Martian soil, but it also found toxic chlorine gas. There are promising signs of flowing water, though that's still uncertain. Even if space travelers had sufficient food, water, and heat, the confined spaces and isolation of a Mars colony would be really bad for colonists' mental health. Plus, high levels of radiation would likely make Martian humans quite sick. On top of all of this, the nearest non-colonist humans will be anywhere from 34 million to 250 million miles away, making any rescue mission difficult, if not impossible.

Private Mars colonization organization Mars One still thinks the journey is worth it. Today, they issued a response to GAIAE, citing the Quran and the specific example of Ibn Battuta, a 14th century explorer.

"And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colors: verily in that are Signs for those who know." (Quran 30: 22)
The Muslim world has a rich tradition of exploration. The verse from the Quran above encourages Muslims to go out and see the signs of God’s creation in the ‘heavens and the earth’. The most influential example of this was the Moroccan Muslim traveller, Ibn Battuta, who from 1325 to 1355 travelled 73,000 miles, visiting the equivalent of 44 modern countries. Among the countries Ibn Battuta visited were Russia, Afghanistan, India, the Maldives, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and China. 

  Mars One continues, imploring the imams to rescind the ruling, and instead think of the risk to humanity posed by not colonizing Mars.

If we may be so bold: the GAIAE should not analyze the risk as they perceive it today. The GAIAE should assess the potential risk for humans as if an unmanned habitable outpost is ready and waiting on Mars. Only when that outpost is established will human lives be risked in Mars One's plan. With eight successful consecutive landing and a habitable settlement waiting on Mars, will the human mission be risk-free? Of course not. Any progress requires taking risks, but in this case the reward is 'the next giant leap for mankind'. That reward is certainly worth the risks involved in this mission. 
Mars One respectfully requests GAIAE to cancel the Fatwa and make the greatest Rihla, or journey, of all times open for Muslims too. They can be the first Muslims to witness the signs of God’s creation in heaven, drawing upon the rich culture of travel and exploration of early Islam.

Read more about Mars One here.

Source: Popular Science