Are the Martian “fossils” real?
Martian meteorite ALH84001 Members of the original discovery team at NASA continue to argue that the tiny worm-like structures in meteorite ALH 84001 are the remains of Martian microorganisms. Additional signs of biogenic activity in the rock, they maintain, include carbonate globules with magnetite and iron sulfide inclusions (similar in size and texture to carbonate precipitates that are often formed by terrestrial bacteria) and organic molecules known as PAHs (polyaromatic hydrocarbons). Other scientists have been more skeptical, preferring an inorganic explanation, and the controversy rages on. The purported fossils are extremely small – from 20 to 100 nanometers (nm) in length. This makes them smaller than the tiniest confirmed terrestrial bacteria, known as Mycoplasma. Recently, though, geologists at the University of Queensland announced that they had found living “nanobes” with diameters of 20 to 150 nm in sandstone taken from 3 km below the seabed off Western Australia. Whatev
