Iconocast Logo

Welcome To Iconocast

How to add a URL link from your web site to the Iconocast web sites

Virtual tour of Southern California

 

Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: mars + life + blocks  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)


Canada.com
Is There Life Out There? The Scoop on Mars Phoenix Rumors of Life
Examiner.com -
But they've found more than that--they've found some of the essential chemical building blocks of life, as we define life back here on Earth. ...
ReutersVideo
NASA giving Phoenix Lander more time to work on Mars Houston Chronicle
NASA Probe Confirms Presence Of Water On Mars WESH.com
Popular Mechanics - NewsBlaze
all 1,730 news articles »
Stock Advice That Will Change Your Life
Motley Fool -
That's what we discovered when we visited Muhlenkamp at his investing seminar in Mars, Pa. But it wasn't until four hours into our visit that he revealed ...
Lollapalooza 2008: The Flaming Lips? Christmas on Mars
Time Out Chicago, IL - 46 minutes ago
Big black blocks of speakers surround the interior. Before the film starts, Coyne appears on screen to explain the genesis (and plot) of the movie. ...
The Implications of the Hypothetical Discovery of Martian Life for ...
Discovery Institute, WA - Jul 30, 2008
Even if we could produce amino acids and all the other building blocks of life under naturally occurring conditions, that would not constitute life any more ...
Network admins with too much control a common issue
Computerworld New Zealand, New Zealand - Aug 3, 2008
By Jaikumar Vijayan Framingham | Monday, 4 August, 2008 Life on Mars (which screens at 8.30pm on Mondays on TV One) is a great TV series. ...
Monthly Prediction for August
Sify, India - Aug 1, 2008
Transiting 7 th lord Jupiter over the 7 th may give auspicious outcomes regarding married life. However, transiting Mars over Virgo from August 9 th around ...
How Did Life on Earth Get Started?
U.S. News & World Report, DC - Jul 24, 2008
A wilder offshoot of this theory, called panspermia, suggests that whole bacteria?life itself?first evolved on Mars and then hitched a ride to Earth via ...
Health calendar
Asheville Citizen-Times, NC -
In Asheville, call 258-5359, in Mars Hill, 505-0438. OSTOMY FAIR: Learn about the latest innovations in ostomy care and meet with vendors who can explain ...
America Back on Track... for Tuesday, August 5th
OpEdNews, PA - 11 minutes ago
The Guards said they had weapons capable of sinking ships 200 miles away, and they could thus block oil shipments from the Persian Gulf. ...
Geologists say it was once soggy, warm, habitable
Houston Chronicle, United States - Jul 16, 2008
In late May, NASA's Phoenix lander began searching for carbon-based compounds, the chemical building blocks for life, lodged in the icy soil.
Source: Google News

Origins of life: A comparison of theories and application to Mars -
WL Davis, CP McKay - Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 1996 - Springer
... suggest that the initial life forms were composed of the same basic building blocks
that we ... To approach the question of the origins of life on Mars we will ...

Life on Mars? II. Physical restrictions -
RL Mancinelli, A Banin - Advances in Space Research, 1995 - Elsevier
... The data obtained thus far suggest that early Mars did possess sufficient quantities
of the building blocks of life for life to arise /l/. The data also ...

Sedimentary rocks at Meridiani Planum: Origin, diagenesis, and implications for life on Mars -
SW Squyres, AH Knoll - Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2005 - Elsevier
... Pancam image of sedimentary rocks exposed in blocks along the ... study an ancient habitable
environment on Mars, but to search for evidence of former life there ...

In Situ Evidence for an Ancient Aqueous Environment at Meridiani Planum, Mars -
SW Squyres, JP Grotzinger, RE Arvidson, JF Bell, W … - Science, 2004 - sciencemag.org
... The presence of adjacent breccia blocks with planar lamination and low ... might well
provide more certainty regarding whether life developed on Mars. ...

Morphological Biosignatures and the Search for Life on Mars -
SL Cady, JD Farmer, JP Grotzinger, JW Schopf, A … - Astrobiology, 2003 - liebertonline.com
... Individual laminae are the building blocks of stromatolites and therefore make up
a time series of ... If life exists at the surface of Mars it would ...

An Overview Of The Origin Of Life: The Case For Biological Prospecting On Mars -
JA Hiscox - Earth, Moon, and Planets, 1999 - Springer
... ACTIVITY ON MARS 197 4. Recreating the Conditions under which Life Originated The
Oparin/Haldane hypothesis would require that the building blocks of life be ...

Habitable zone for Earth-like planets in the solar system -
S Franck, A Block, W von Bloh, C Bounama, HJ … - Planetary and Space Science, 2000 - Elsevier
... Warming early Mars with carbon dioxide clouds that scatter ... Franck, S., Block, A.,
von Bloh, W., Bounama, C ... Reduction of biosphere life span as a consequence of ...

… record of rocks from the Ross Desert, Antarctica: implications in the search for past life on Mars -
J Wierzchos, C Ascaso - International Journal of Astrobiology, 2002 - Cambridge Univ Press
... After polymerization, the blocks were cut, finely polishedatthe endswithdiamond
powder (0n1 ... provide more insight into the possibility of past life on Mars. ...

Planetary habitability: is Earth commonplace in the Milky Way? -
S Franck, A Block, W Bloh, C Bounama, I Garrido, … - Naturwissenschaften, 2001 - Springer
... are essential, but not sufficient requirements for life. ... plan- ets? ? Venus, Earth
and Mars ? suggest that a ... S. Franck ( ? ) ? A. Block ? W. von Bloh ...

[BOOK] The Search for Life on Mars -
M Walter - 1999 - books.google.com
... is insufficient ozone to form a shield to block lethal levels ... The surface of Mars
is not a great place to ... to be suitable habitats for microbial life, just as ...

Source: Google Scholar

Building blocks of life formed on Mars

Washington, DC—Organic compounds contain carbon and hydrogen and form the building blocks of all life on Earth. By analyzing organic material and minerals in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001, scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory have shown for the first time that building blocks of life formed on Mars early in its history. Previously, scientists have thought that organic material in ALH 84001 was brought to Mars by meteorite impacts or more speculatively originated from ancient Martian microbes.

The Carnegie-led team made a comprehensive study of the ALH 84001 meteorite and compared the results with data from related rocks found on Svalbard, Norway. The Svalbard samples occur in volcanoes that erupted in a freezing Arctic climate about 1 million years ago—possibly mimicking conditions on early Mars.

“Organic material occurs within tiny spheres of carbonate minerals in both the Martian and Earth rocks,” explained Andrew Steele, lead author of the study. “We found that the organic material is closely associated with the iron oxide mineral magnetite, which is the key to understanding how these compounds formed.”

The organic material in the rocks from Svalbard formed when volcanoes erupted under freezing conditions. During cooling, magnetite acted as a catalyst to form organic compounds from fluids rich in carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). This event occurred under conditions where no forms of life are likely to exist. The similar association of carbonate, magnetite and organic material in the Martian meteorite ALH 84001 is very compelling and shows that the organic material did not originate from Martian life forms but formed directly from chemical reactions within the rock. This is the first study to show that Mars is capable of forming organic compounds at all.

The organic material in the Allan Hills meteorite may have formed during two different events. The first, similar to the Svalbard samples, was during rapid cooling of fluids on Mars. A second event produced organic material from carbonate minerals during impact ejection of ALH 84001 from Mars.

“The results of this study show that volcanic activity in a freezing climate can produce organic compounds,” remarked co-author Hans E.F. Amundsen from Earth and Planetary Exploration Services. “This implies that building blocks of life can form on cold rocky planets throughout the Universe.”

“Our finding sets the stage for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission in 2009,” remarked Steele, who is a member of the Sample Analysis on Mars (SAM) instrument team onboard MSL. “We now know that Mars can produce organic compounds. Part of the mission's goal is to identify organic compounds, their sources, and to detect molecules relevant to life. We know that they are there. We just have to find them.”

###

The research is published in Meteoritics & Planetary Science http://meteoritics.org/index.htm

For more information on the MSL mission and the SAM instrument see http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ and http://ael.gsfc.nasa.gov/marsSAM.shtml

This research was funded by NASA SRLIDA, ASTEP, NAI and ASTID programs; the Marshall Scholarship program; and the University of Oxford, Earth Sciences Department and was carried out in collaboration with the Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) project.

The Carnegie Institution (www.CIW.edu) has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

 
 
 
Google
Web www.iconocast.com

Search inside Iconocast for the keyword you have in mind.

Iconocast has collected more than 50,000 articles and press releases on health and science.

These are current and most up to date press releases on the subject you are searching.

We collect current health and science press releases daily from more than 5000 research and health institutes. Here is an example : The elderberry way to perfect skin

We believe if you do search inside Iconocast, you will get better results than searching the web alone.

 
 
Continue News With: News4 ; News5 ; News6 ; News7 ; News8 ; News9 ; News9A


ADVERTISEMENT

Iconocast is about learning and teaching without borders; we offer eMarketing, Internet Advertising, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Online Branding, and eMarketing News Services.

 

Iconocast Home Page

Contact Iconocast

© 2003-07. ICONOCAST is a trademark of iconocast.com.