Mars craters a 'safe haven' for life?
Apr 20, 2012 23:18:08 GMT -5
Post by PrisonerOfHope on Apr 20, 2012 23:18:08 GMT -5
Mars craters a 'safe haven' for life?
Asteroid craters on Earth shelter life -- and they might do so on planets like Mars as well, a new study suggests.
Micro-organisms have been discovered living deep underneath a site in the U.S. where an asteroid crashed some 35 million years ago, wrote Charles Cockell of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy – and similar craters on Mars would be a great spot to probe for aliens.
“The subsurface of craters on Mars might be a promising place to search for evidence of life,” Cockell wrote in this month’s edition of the science journal Astrobiology. “The deeply fractured areas around impact craters can provide a safe haven in which microbes can flourish for long periods of time.”
NASA and other leading scientists told FoxNews.com they agree -- and the discovery by Cockell and colleagues should impact future U.S. research on Mars
Read more: www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/20/mars-craters-safe-haven-for-life/#ixzz1sdh6DhvP
Asteroid craters on Earth shelter life -- and they might do so on planets like Mars as well, a new study suggests.
Micro-organisms have been discovered living deep underneath a site in the U.S. where an asteroid crashed some 35 million years ago, wrote Charles Cockell of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy – and similar craters on Mars would be a great spot to probe for aliens.
“The subsurface of craters on Mars might be a promising place to search for evidence of life,” Cockell wrote in this month’s edition of the science journal Astrobiology. “The deeply fractured areas around impact craters can provide a safe haven in which microbes can flourish for long periods of time.”
NASA and other leading scientists told FoxNews.com they agree -- and the discovery by Cockell and colleagues should impact future U.S. research on Mars
Read more: www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/20/mars-craters-safe-haven-for-life/#ixzz1sdh6DhvP
