

NASA Scientist Claims Evidence of Alien Life on Meteorite - jonallanharper
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/05/exclusive-nasa-scientists-claims-evidence-alien-life-meteorite/

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asmithmd1
Here is a link to the actual paper:

<http://journalofcosmology.com/Life100.html>

The Journal of Cosmology website looks a little sketchy to me -- not what I
would expect from a serious science publication.

Even if he could conclusively prove that he is seeing a fossil in a meteorite
you couldn't discount the idea that these meteorites were blasted off the
earth's surface and into space by some ancient, huge asteroid strike and fell
back to earth at a later date. That seems more likely to me than bacteria
developing on a comet which is what he is suggesting.

That being said I had never heard of this class of meteorite. Here is a
description from the paper by a chemistry professor who analyzed one in 1806,

"He realized that these stones were different from all other meteorites since
they had the appearance of solidified clay. Thénard reported that “when the
stones were placed in water they disintegrated immediately and gave off a
strong clay-like odor.” "

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hoag
I suppose the source meteorite could have been ejected matter from an impact
with another planet that harbored life; i.e., a sort of "meteor vector." That,
to me, seems far more plausible than life developing out of nothing on a
meteor or comet in space.

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extension
Fox neglects to mention that their photo is an actual Titanospirillum
bacterium, not the fossil found in the meteorite.

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pmorici
They have a track record of showing images and video with their reporting and
imply the images are related to the news being discussed when they are often
not.

~~~
extension
They actually took the image from the paper, but they used the comparison
image instead of the actual one.

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andrewheins
Does anyone else question his choice to give FOXNews the exclusive? If you had
made one of the most important scientific discoveries in history, would you
submit it to FOX?

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jerf
Unfortunately, it fits right in with history. NASA no longer has any
credibility on the extraterrestrial life front. I've lost count of all their
announcements, which have without fail turned out to be anything from
arguably-fraudulent (though not quite _provably_ so) up through so dubious it
means nothing, like the previous meteorite results.

They have a pretty picture in the news story, certainly, but I will wait for
independent confirmation before I even begin to consider the possibility that
this may be true, as opposed to a carefully-selected picture culled from
gigabytes of data. Not because I have preconceptions either way, but because
that's how little I value NASA's announcements on this front.

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jarin
The announcement of "arsenic-based life" was particularly bad, as it turned
out to just be normal life that can survive in a higher than normal
concentration of arsenic.

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jneal
This guy has some interesting information:

[http://m.gawker.com//5777460/fox-news-publishes-fake-
exclusi...](http://m.gawker.com//5777460/fox-news-publishes-fake-exclusive-
about-discovery-of-alien-life)

Something seems odd here - the guy has made this same announcement in the
past.

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dwc
It's worth reading Phil Plait's article on this:
[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/05/ha...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/05/has-
life-been-found-in-a-meteorite/)

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jcfrei
If the meteorites were found on earth, couldn't the fossils stem from local
bacteria? Maybe the meteorite hit earth a long time ago, long enough so
fossils could form.

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jeromec
Apparently the CI chondrites class of meteorites are rare, all having fallen
within around 200 years (oldest find in 1806).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CI_chondrite>

Even assuming the possibility of bacteria contagion from Earth the question
remains how the biological remain appears to contain no nitrogen, an essential
building block to life as we know it.

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valjavec
All the scientists aren't really looking for "Alien Life" but rather "Life
outside of planet Earth that looks very much like life on Earth".

To simplify we are made of cells and breathe oxygen but I would argue life can
exists in other forms than one we know.

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mkramlich
> He gave FoxNews.com early access to the out-of-this-world research,
> published late Friday evening in the March edition of the Journal of
> Cosmology.

This just screams credibility.

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alanh
> _foxnews.com_

