Meteorites tell us ... a study suggests life on Mars 4 billion years ago

Hicham boumejout

Researchers from Japan said they have evidence that suggests that there were about four billion years before life on Mars, which they discovered by finding carbon particles of organic matter containing nitrogen inside a meteorite about four million years old that had come from Mars and fell On our planet about 15 million years ago.

And it seems that according to the study prepared by these researchers and published in the journal Nature on April 24 last, that the planet Mars was at the beginning of its evolution moist and rich in organic materials that make it capable of embracing life.

Although previous scientific research that relied on the tasks carried out by the probes, such as the curiosity probe launched by NASA previously, sensed the presence of organic materials, their nature, formulations, or even their age before this study were still unknown to scientists .

Mars meteorite messages The Mars meteorites
start from the surface of this planet and fall to the surface of the earth, as a message that carries a lot of information about this planet, and among these meteorites is the one that was under study, which was found in 1984 in the Antarctic and was called "ALH 84001". He has undergone several studies but the techniques used on him were not as superior as today.

Despite technological advances, scientists face problems analyzing meteorites coming from space because of their mixing throughout their stay on the planet, some for millions of years, with terrestrial organic materials.

To remove these impurities, the researchers said they developed a technology that absorbs "X" rays from nitrogenous formulations and enables us to determine the chemical form of these formulations that were in the form of nitrates.

Perhaps it was Azraq.
The researcher participating in the study, Atsuko Kobayashi of the Institute of Earth and Life Sciences in Tokyo, told Al-Jazeera Net via e-mail, "We do not claim that there was actually life on Mars, but we say that there was a possibility of life about four billion years ago." .

"We have demonstrated, using advanced technology, the presence of molecules of organic matter that confirm that some of the essential elements of life were there and they are nitrogenous molecules. We thought, at the beginning, Mars was like Earth, less oxidized and more moisture, rich in organic matter, and perhaps blue." .

Despite this, researchers are still wondering about the truth about the source of these organic materials that were found in meteorites, because the possibility remains for the possibility that they also came from outside Mars.

The second possibility that the study focused on is that these substances formed on the surface of this planet at the beginning of its creation when it was rich in organic matter. Questions Researchers will work to find accurate and confirmed answers in the near future.