Evidence relevant to the life on Mars debate. I - C-14 results

Details Evidence relevant to the life on Mars debate. I - C-14 results Evidence relevant to the life on Mars debate. I - C-14 results

Mar 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997lpi....28.1585w&link_type=abstract

Conference Paper, 28th Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, p. 585.

Biology

Mars Environment, Extraterrestrial Life, Meteoritic Composition, Organic Materials, Minerals, Carbonates, Carbon Dioxide, Activity (Biology), Earth Environment

Scientific paper

The Martian meteorite EET A79001 contains, in localized concentrations, a relatively high proportion of organic materials, equivalent to about 1000 ppm carbon (compared to a maximum of 200 ppm which could be ascribed to terrestrial contamination). The organic compounds are associated with carbonate minerals, for which arguments have been made to substantiate a preterrestrial (i.e., Martian) origin. However, measurements of C-14 have cast aspersions on the provenance of the carbonates, suggesting instead a terrestrial origin. Herein we show that these results are misleading and conclude that the minerals are indeed Martian. What we are left with now are putative Martian organic materials with a carbon isotopic composition that is very similar to that of the Earth's biomass. More importantly there is a large isotopic difference between the carbon in the organic fraction compared with that of Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide (and subsequently formed carbonates). It is tempting to equate this with the effect of vital processes on Earth. For this to be true it would be necessary to accept that biological activity had occurred on Mars in the very recent past (i.e., between 0.6 x 10 exp 6 and 0.18 x 10 exp 9 yr ago).

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