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Ancient fragments of plant life preserved in molten glass formed by asteroid impacts could provide evidence from 4-billion-year-old forms of life.
According to Christian Science Monitor, researchers studying impact debris on Earth think that the same thing could very well have happened on Mars, and that any evidence for ancient life on the Red Planet might be found by looking inside the glass.
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When large asteroids or comets strike the Earth, the energy released in the event creates an enormous amount of heat, enough to briefly melt rock and soil at the impact site.
The molten material quickly cools, trapping organic material and bits of plants and preserving them inside fragments of glass for tens of thousands, and possibly even millions of years.
Pete Schultz, a geologist at Brown University, and his research team, has identified the remains of plant materials trapped inside impact glass found at several different sites scattered across Argentina, according to a university news release issued Friday, April 18.
Impact melt breccias from two impact sites, occuring three and nine million years ago, have been discovered to contain very well-preserved fragments of vegetation - providing samples of ancient organisms as well as snapshots of the local environment from the time of the events, writes the Christian Science Monitor.
"These glasses preserve plant morphology from macro features all the way down to the micron scale," said Schultz. "It's really remarkable."
Schultz suggests that the same process that trapped the material in Argentina's Pampas region may have occurred on Mars, preserving any early organics located at and around impact sites, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
"Impact glass may be where the 4 billion-year-old signs of life are hiding," Schultz said. "On Mars they're probably not going to come out screaming in the form of a plant, but we may find traces of organic compounds, which would be really exciting."
The research has been published in the latest issue of .
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Source : http://www.designntrend.com/articles/13001/20140421/ancient-martian-life-could-be-preserved-in-meteor-impact-glass-according-to-researchers.htm
