The remnants of a crimson , scorching meteor impact might not seem like the best position to reckon for signs of life , but the last couple of years have show us that organic matter can — and does — survive these events , preserved in glass formed during the utmost temperatures . Researchersnow believe they have detected down payment of this wallop glass within crater on the surface of Mars , and paint a picture that it could also hold in evidence of preceding life .
By psychoanalyze the lighting reflect off the Red Planet ’s surface , scientists are able-bodied to determine what John Rock and mineral are present based on the different wavelengths of light that they either absorb or reflect , known as their spectrum . Using datum collected by NASA ’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite , researcher fromBrown Universitywere able-bodied to observe the signatures unequaled to impact glass . That may sound simple enough , but the unconscious process was actually exceedingly complex .
“ Glasses run to be spectrally smooth or weakly expressive , so theme song from the methamphetamine tend to be overcome by the glob of rock meld in with it , ” excuse Jack Mustard , co - author of thepaperpublished in the journalGeology . “ But Kevin [ Cannon , pencil lead author ] found a way to tease that signal out . ”
To branch the signatures of rock and glass , the researchers desegregate powdered rock in the lab in alike spirit level to those found on the surface of Mars , and then fired them in an oven to create glass . They were then able-bodied to read the spectrum of light ponder by the glass that take form , and construct an algorithm that look for for these signatures in the data garner from the satellite orbiting the major planet .
“ Before this newspaper publisher no one had been able to definitively detect [ touch of spyglass ] on the surface [ of Mars ] , ” state Mustard . The scientist were able-bodied to pinpoint dissimilar glassy deposits around a identification number of different crater site , generally on the peak that forms in the heart of volcanic crater after an shock event .
As mentioned , researchers have previously show that constitutive affair can be bear on in impact glass formed when a meteor slam into the terra firma . This wasfirst demonstratedwhen scientists from the University of Tasmania found remnant of an 800,000 - year - old swampland in shard of glass in Tasmania , andagainwhen other researchers from Brown University key out bits of leaves in shabu form by an impact zillion of year ago .
These preceding find have yield credence to the theory ofpanspermia , which suggests that bits of constitutive matter get on comets and asteroid could survive the utmost condition of space and the heating system and force per unit area of impact , allowing them to seed other satellite with living . The research worker of this new study hope that samples of the Martian glassful can be roll up , and hopefully returned to Earth for analysis .
