Saturday, May 3, 2014

Ancient Martian Life May Be Preserved in Glass

Ancient Martian Life May Be Preserved in Glass:

A fresh impact left this 30-meter-wide crater on Mars, imaged by HiRISE in Nov. 2013 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona )

A fresh impact left this 30-meter-wide crater on Mars, imaged by HiRISE in Nov. 2013 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona )
When large asteroids or comets strike the Earth — as they have countless times throughout our planet’s history — the energy released in the event creates an enormous amount of heat, enough to briefly melt rock and soil at the impact site. That molten material quickly cools, trapping organic material and bits of plants and preserving them inside fragments of glass for tens of thousands, even millions of years.

Researchers studying impact debris on Earth think that the same thing could very well have happened on Mars, and that any evidence for ancient life on the Red Planet might be found by looking inside the glass.

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