It was synthesized from water and rocks
The well-known fragment of the Martian meteorite Allan Hills, found in Antarctica in 1984, contains organic molecules not of biological, but of geochemical origin. This conclusion was made by American scientists from the Carnegie Institute. Molecules were formed as a result of geochemical interaction between water and rock. The same way of building the early building blocks of life, scientists believe, can also help to understand where life on our planet came from.
For many years, scientists have discussed the history of the origin of organic carbon found in the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite. Various abiotic processes associated with volcanic activity on Mars 4 billion years ago, impact events on Mars, or the interaction of water and minerals have been put forward as possible causes of its appearance. Hypotheses have also been put forward that the organics in a piece of a meteorite are possible remnants of ancient life or terrestrial pollution from its “emergency” landing on Earth. In favor of traces of life in the meteorite, an astrobiologist from the USA, David McKay, spoke.
Scanning the structure of the meteorite with an electron microscope, he revealed fossils that resembled “traces” of terrestrial organisms – the so-called magnetotactic bacteria.
According to a new analysis by Andrew Steel of the Carnegie Institution (published in the journal Science), the organic matter in a meteorite is not living, but synthesized by the interaction of water and rock.
The Steele-led team, which also included researchers from the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ, the Free University of Berlin and the NASA Space Center. Johnson, used a variety of sophisticated methods for preparing and analyzing samples of the Martian sample. They examined it at high magnification, carried out its isotopic analysis and spectroscopy.
As a result, they found evidence of the interaction of water and rocks, similar to those that occur on Earth.
“These kinds of non-biological geological reactions are responsible for the pool of organic carbon compounds from which life could have evolved, and represent a background signal that must be considered when looking for evidence of past life on Mars,” Steele concluded. “…If these reactions happened on ancient Mars, they must have happened on ancient Earth too… All that is required for this type of organic synthesis is for a solution containing dissolved carbon dioxide to percolate through the igneous rocks.” The search for life on Mars is not just an attempt to answer the question: “Are we alone?” This also applies to the environment of the early Earth and answers the question “where did we come from?”.
Commentary by the Executive Director of the Center for Monitoring the Environment and Ecology of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Alexandra RODINA:
– In principle, the processes that the researchers described regarding the possible origin of the organics of the Martian meteorite have long been known. I would not say that this is some kind of sensation – just another proof that the “signs of life” on Mars are not.
But I think we will hear more than once about the discovery of life on the Red Planet, because … people want it to be there. Let me remind you the story of the discovery of methane on Mars. It has been seen from both ground and space telescopes. So far, the group of Oleg Korablev (Head of the Department of Planetary Physics from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences) has not closed this issue: there is no methane on Mars. We have no evidence of life on Mars either in the modern era or in the previous era.
As for the arguments of American scientists that life could once have originated from similar organic molecules found on Earth, they are groundless. Scientists have no evidence of the emergence of life from nothing.
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