Mars once had life proved!!

             In a pioneering feat, researchers have discovered glass deposits on  mars,Providing  a delicate window into the possibility of past life on mars.
   Using data from NASA`a Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the team from brown university detected glass deposits within impact craters on mars formed in the  searing heat of violent impact.
   Previous research has shown that ancient bio signatures can be preserved in the impact glass.
"knowing this' we wanted to go look for them on Mars and that is what we did here. Before this paper, no one has been able to definitively detect them on the Martian surface," said Kevin Cannon, PhD student at Brown University. Cannon and co-author professor Jack Mustard showed that large glass deposits are present in several ancient, yet well-preserved craters scattered across the surface of Mars.

Over the last few years, a number of studies have shown that, here on our planet, ancient bio signatures can be preserved in impact glass. One of those studies found organic molecules and even plant matter entombed in glass formed by an impact that occurred millions of years ago in Argentina.

Scientists suggested that similar processes might preserve signs of life on Mars, if indeed they were present at the time of an impact.

In a new study, Prof Jack Mustard and PhD student Kevin Cannon, both from Brown University, used orbital remotely sensed data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), which flies aboardNASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to investigate spectral signatures of Martian impact sites – geologic units that were formed during impacts.                                                                                 The glass-rich impactites the team has identified have been preserved on billion-year timescales, old enough to date back to more clement surface conditions on Mars.

Their preservation is likely due to the current cold and dry surface environment; therefore, fossilisation in glass, as proposed previously, seems to be a promising target to search for possible ancient Martian biological activity.

“The metastable glass has been preserved by the cold and dry Martian climate during the Amazonian period (2.9-3.3 billion years ago to present), and this preservation – as confirmed here across the planet – provides a means to trap signs of ancient life on the accessible Martian surface.”

   Knowing that impact glass can preserve ancient sign of life opens a potential new strategy in the search for martian life.

     "We think these could be interesting targets for future exploration. In fact, we have a particular spot in mind" the author from brown university said.
  The research was published online in the journal geology.

Deposits of impact glass have been preserved in Martian craters, including Alga Crater, shown here. In color coding based on analysis of data from the CRISM instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, green indicates the presence of glass; blues are pyroxene; reds are olivine. This view shows Alga Crater’s central peak, which is about 3 miles (5 km) wide within the 12-mile (19-km) diameter of this southern-hemisphere crater. The information from CRISM is shown over a terrain model and image based on observations by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The vertical dimension is exaggerated by a factor of two. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / JHUAPL / University of Arizona.

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