THE footprint of life on Mars may have been plain to see all along in the sulphurous minerals that litter the planet's surface. What's more, the next Mars lander should be able to detect the evidence.


Sulphur in silence

No mission to Mars has ever found complex carbon-based molecules, from which life as we know it is built. But sulphur is everywhere on Mars - it is more abundant there than on Earth - and it could contain one of the signatures of life. On Earth, the activity of some microbes converts one class of sulphur-containing compounds, the sulphates, into another, the sulphides. The microbes prefer to work with the lighter sulphur-32 isotope, so the sulphides they produce are relatively deficient in the heavier isotope, sulphur-34. Planetary scientists have long wondered whether we could use this pattern to discern signs of life on Mars. Now the prospects for this technique look better than ever.

John Parnell of the University of Aberdeen, UK, and his colleagues found sulphides, apparently formed through microbial activity, permeating the rocks of Haughton crater in the Canadian Arctic (Geology, DOI: 10.1130/G30615.1). "It was amazing - it was everywhere," says Parnell, who pressed the case for investigating sulphur isotopes on Mars at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, last week.

An analysis of the crater's rocks indicates the sulphides were produced at temperatures above 70 °C. That suggests they formed shortly after the crater itself was created by a meteorite impact 39 million years ago, when water warmed by the impact would have circulated through the crater rocks.

Despite the passage of time, the signature of life at Haughton crater remains clear, with sulphur-34 depleted by 7 per cent in the sulphides compared with the sulphates. This suggests that such a signature is not easily erased, bolstering the chances that Martian rocks that were moist enough to harbour life long ago could still carry a detectable signature of life, says Parnell.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover will land on the Martian surface in 2012. It will carry a mass spectrometer that should be sensitive enough to see variations as small as 2 per cent in sulphur isotope abundances, says John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the lead scientist for the mission.

Sulphur is "definitely a promising candidate" to reveal signs of life on Mars, says David Des Marais of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who is also involved in the mission. "If there are big isotopic differences that would be very suspicious. The only way we know how to do that on Earth is with life."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... -face.html

NASA is talking shit every and all day long, they already found it and the ancient artifacts
but won't tell us shit about it.

O.k not saying I disagree with you, but explain to me why the US government is investing in this exploration during times of crisis? Surely when they already have their evidence in hands as you claim.

Others scientists who (apperantly) don't know, wants to find out and indeed share their findings with the public.

MSL looks to be a promising mission! Can't wait.

sure i will explain my claims


well its just like the lunar missions, before they went there, they knew about everything about the moon especially whats on the surface,
they flew there for other things than just bringing some stone probes of the moon.
they flew there for the things they found on the surface when they send orbiters there in the late 50s and early 60s.
we all know there are buildings on the moon, evidence for that claim is their censorship of their pictures and the leaked stuff thats in the net and especially the disclosure project 2001.

now its the mars, the info that got out about the mars last few months is that NASA
found water on the mars 30 years AGO already.
they have 2 rovers on the mars which take 1000 pictures a day each.

WE know the mars was once populated by an ancient civilisation, because of the
leaked info that got out and especially the images they upload, where some people,
who still analyze the pictures (like me) still find evidence (which get ignored) of either skulls,
ancient structure pieces, or other animal bones.

NASA must have found something that makes them there go again, and saying they go for this and that, and in the background they do the other thing, the main purpose, for going there. and telling us they are there for other things

NASA still DENIES all the above stated facts or if you want so claims.

even if its clear as fuck, or obvious.

you have no idea how far NASA's knowledge about the outside of this earth is.

NASA is keeping us in the PAST, and not telling us what they know.

NASA stands for science itself
what they do, this is not scientistic

Clear proof of Martian life in meteorite ALH84001

Found in Martian meteorite ALH84001 are various fossils, including
fossilized remains of mammalian red blood cell, blood vessel,
Haversian canal, osteons, collagen fibril, and chromatin fibers as
shown in the following figures:


Fig. 1: shows mammalian red blood cell and branching blood vessel
http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=l ... 4796&p=186


Photo source:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/ ... ities.html


Credit: Dr. Allan Treiman


Fig. 2: shows a Haversian canal found in a carbonate globule of
meteorite ALH84001
http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=l ... 4797&p=187


Photo source:
http://brainmind.com/Mars.html
Credit: NASA


The following figures have been published previously in
http://wretchfossil.blogspot.com/


Fig. 3: shows a broken,fossilized collagen fibril
http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=l ... 7114&p=117


Fig. 4: shows several osteons
http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=l ... 5625&p=130


Fig. 5: shows several chromatin fibers
http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=l ... 8460&p=126

they are spending this money because they know that something is going to hit earth in 2033 and they want an option to get off the planet before then.