An international group of scientists led by Chinese geologists have discovered an organic substance, similar to coal, founded a meteorite from Mars, today reported the South China Morning Post.
The discovery, published in the latest issue of the journal Science Meteoritics and Planetary Science, presents new evidence on the possible existence of some sort of biological activity on the red planet.
The researchers found traces of organic materials together with Chemical elements such as nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus, having a structure similar to the existing coal on Earth.
These substances have been found in a meteorite called ‘Tissint’, which is estimated to have been separated from Mars 700,000 years ago after the collision of an asteroid.
This meteorite fell like a fireball in Morocco in July 2011 and, after months of observation and analysis of fragments that composed it, an international group of scientists determined that was coming from the neighboring planet.
One of the authors of the study, Zhang Jianchao, a physicist at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explained that his team believes that coal-like substance comes from Mars , told the South China Morning Post, English-language newspaper published in Hong Kong.
No comments:
Post a Comment