Was there ever life on Mars? Scientists studied 1.3 billion year old meteorite

One question arises in everyone’s mind about Mars. Since it is one of the closest planets to Earth, would there ever have been life here? Scientists have also been confused by this question for years. Continuous research is going on about this. It is highly hoped that scientists will find a conclusive answer in this regard soon. NASA has set a target to bring samples from Mars to Earth by 2030. These will be such samples from which evidence of life on Mars can be detected. However, scientists are studying the material of Mars in the form of meteorites. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden studied the 1.3-billion-year-old meteorite Pink from Mars and found that it had received limited exposure to water. In other words, life was unlikely to exist at that particular time and place.

The scientists used neutron and X-ray tomography. This is the same technology that will be used to study the samples brought by the Perseverance rover. This technique was used because scientists wanted to find out if there had ever been a large hydrothermal system that would have been suitable for life to flourish. X-ray tomography is a common method of studying an object without damaging it. Neutron tomography was used because neutrons are very sensitive to hydrogen.

Scientists hope to find hydrogen first to find life because we know that water is the first requirement for life. “We wanted to investigate how the meteorite might have reacted with water when it was part of the Martian rock,” said a geology doctoral student at Lund University.

The research found that only a small part of the meteorite may have reacted with the water. This means that the samples found on the surface of Mars did not contain anything that harbored life at that time. This study of scientists has also been published in the journal Science Advances. Scientists hope that their discovery will also be helpful for NASA scientists when they return to Earth with samples from Mars.

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