DOES A MARS ROCK HOLD A CLUE TO LIFE?
Of the tens of thousands of meteorites that have been found on Earth, approximately a dozen may have actually originated on Mars. In 1996, a NASA research team concluded that a meteorite, found in an Antarctic ice field in1984, could be a rock that was blasted from the surface of Mars. The meteorite, age dated at 4.5 billion years, might contain evidence that life indeed existed on Mars 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists now theorize that 3.5 billion years ago, Mars was warmer and wetter, and microscopic life may have formed and left evidence in the rock. Then, 16 million years ago, a huge comet or asteroid smashed into Mars and blasted material—including this rock—out into space. The rock possibly entered Earth’s atmosphere about 13,000 years ago, and ultimately landed in Antarctica. These are just a few things to consider when you gaze at Mars. As Jane Houston Jones, President of the Astronomical Association of Northern California notes: “When I look at Mars through my telescope, I se
