Having found water in a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite, NASA scientists are searching for more that may have been overlooked in other space rocks. The water, locked in a purple crystalline mineral called halite – or rock salt – remained uncontaminated by the Earth’s atmosphere because scientists studied the meteorite quickly, less than 46 hours after it fell, said Everett Gibson, the NASA scientist who retrieved the space rock last year from the West Texas town of Monahans.
August 13th, 1999
Life on Mars –The Evidence Grows
Three years after announcing that a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica held evidence of primitive life on Mars, a team of scientists at the Johnson Space Center says evidence continues to bolster that conclusion.
July 27th, 1999
They Thrive in the Arctic, Why Not On Mars?
Biologists have found life deep inside Earth’s crust, and at thermal vents at the frigid bottom of the sea. Astrobiologists are now looking to Siberian permafrost for clues about how life on Earth may have begun and how it might start on other water-rich bodies of the solar system.
July 27th, 1999
Earth’s Toughest Bug Might Help Colonize Mars
Deinococcus radiodurans — listed as “world’s toughest bacterium” in the Guinness Book of World Records — may prove useful in future human missions to Mars, according to researchers.
July 1st, 1999
Evidence for Life on Mars Remains Weak
For all its achievements, science has also been spectacularly wrong, UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf shows in his new book, “Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth’s Earliest Fossils” (Princeton University Press). Facts always prevail eventually — but sometimes they don’t emerge for decades.
June 11th, 1999
Unearthing clues to Martian fossils
The hunt for signs of ancient life on Mars leads scientists to Mono Lake, CA
June 2nd, 1999
Professor teams up with NASA to study signs of life from Mars Chicago Sun-Times
The moon doesn’t hold much promise for clay mineralogists. But Mars is a different story. With signs that water once flowed on its now-parched surface, the red planet could have the answer to one of the world’s weightiest questions: Does life exist outside of Earth?
June 2nd, 1999
Cookin’ Up A Martian Stew
A University of Arkansas researcher has become the first scientist to grow methane-producing microorganisms under some of the conditions found on Mars. His work may provide clues for finding similar life forms on Mars.
June 2nd, 1999
Exotic Earth bacteria shown to grow in a simulated Mars Florida Today
A methane-making, oxygen-hating microbe is able to thrive in Mars-like laboratory conditions, according to a researcher who says the experiment raises fresh hope about the possibility of life on the Red Planet.
June 2nd, 1999
Sustaining Live Methane-Producing Microorganisms University of Arkansas
A University of Arkansas researcher has become the first scientist to grow methane-producing microorganisms under some of the conditions found on Mars. His work may provide clues for finding similar life forms on Mars.