The Nakhla meteorite originated from Mars and fell to Earth in Egypt in 1911 . It has been studied extensively over the geezerhood , and is one of the first indicators humans had about past urine and mineral content on Mars . A biomorphic ovoid structure was late discovered , which powerfully resembles some sort of microorganism . scientist studying the formation ultimately determine it was induce by geological force and was not formed by a life organism . However , the analysis did reveal an unbelievable amount of entropy regarding the writing of Mars and its likely habitableness . The research was lead by Elias Chatzitheodoridis of National Technical University of Athens and the newspaper was bring out in an loose admission format in the journalAstrobiology .
It was not immediately clear how the structure formed . Several hypotheses were kicked around , including that it was formed by ancient Martian microorganisms . In rescript to enquire the social system ’s rootage , the meteorite was subjected to a barrage of tests including tenner - ray analyses , mass spectroscopy , electron microscopy , and atomic force microscope topographic mapping .
The researcher are confident that the complex body part was autochthonous to the sample , and not the solvent of any contaminant once it got to Earth . The elliptical structure itself is about 80 micrometer long , 60 microns wide . The average E. coli bacterium is about 2 microns long , so if prokaryote were imply , it would have take an entire dependency to make a blank that declamatory . Eukaryotic microorganisms can easily be as large as the social structure . However , they ultimately decided that it was n’t likely that they were look at the imprint of alien life .
Instead , the data unveil that the structure was likely formed due to geologic process . It appears that the rock from which the meteorite originated had been attain by another object . The electric shock produced heat and pressure which melted the permafrost and mixed fluids and mineral on and below the open . It looks most likely that vaporized liquidness formed a bubble , which was then filled with the constitutional textile .
While they did n’t receive verbatim grounds of microbic life history , they also did n’t find anything that completely ruled it out either . They discover minerals that are indispensable for life , which back up findings from theCuriosity roverthat Mars could have been habitable in the past . The theme states that “ although compelling evidence for a biotic descent is lacking , it is plain that the Martian subsurface hold niche surroundings where life could develop . ”
