Meteors show signs of life outside of Earth

A meteorite from Mars contains signs of water and organic compounds, which may be evidence that extraterrestrial life existed 700,000 years ago.

A fragment of Tissint meteorite.(Photo: EPFL)

Tissint meteorite plunges into the desert of Guelmim-Es Semara of Morocco on July 18, 2011. According to estimates by scientists, a small planet knocked out this meteorite from the surface of Mars about 700,000 years ago.

The gray and 8-kg mass of meteorites surprised the scientific community when they found it contained traces of water and ingredients in organic carbon compounds. Experts then assumed that organic matter might appear after the "space visitor" fell into North Africa.

However, according to Sputnik News, recent research proves that they originate from outside the Earth and may be evidence of extraterrestrial life from 700,000 years ago. Through testing, the team determined that organic matter has four unusual characteristics that show that they form in natural conditions outside the Earth. They also contain a lot of deuterium (a stable isotope of hydrogen), which is found in soil in Mars.

Professor Yangting Lin of the Beijing Academy of Sciences said that the organic carbon content in Tissint may not have biological origin. They can be formed from collisions between carbon-chondrite meteorites.