Amiga.org
Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / Science and Technology => Topic started by: blobrana on August 14, 2004, 10:28:36 PM
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Hum,
Reported Here First:
it seems that evidence for indigenous microfossils in a carbonaceous meteorite have been found:
The possible detection of a fossilized cyanobacterial mat in the interior of the `Orgueil carbonaceous meteorite` was disclosed at the International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology in Denver, Colorado.
Microfossils in meteorites, of course, have been reported before, with critics saying that they may have been left by earthly contaminants. But the newly seen microfossils cannot be contaminants because they are not isolated single cells, but whole ecologies whose earthly examples grow only under conditions that the meteorite fragment never experienced on Earth.
The new evidence, soon to be published in the Conference Proceedings, is momentous.
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Wow....
It's certainly momentus news. Any idea where the meteorite originated from?
I'm of the opinion that we may well discover life in the oceans of Europa, perhaps living by geothermal vents. I'd also like to think that Mars has a surprise or two for us. I cannot for one minute believe that life is a phenomena unique to Earth.
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hum,
the large carbonaceous chondrite disintegrated and fell in fragments near the French town of Orgueil on May 14, 1864. About 20 pieces, totalling about 12 kg in mass, were subsequently recovered from an area of several square km, some head-sized but most smaller than a fist.
(http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/blobrana/newpic/Orgueil.jpg)
Heres a link to the conference site (http://www.spie.org/conferences/programs/04/am/updates.html)