NSF PR 97-50 - July 17, 1997
Media contacts: |
Lynn Simarski |
(703) 306-1070 |
lsimarsk@nsf.gov |
|
Don Savage,
NASA Headquarters |
(202) 358-1547 |
|
Program contact: |
Scott Borg |
(703) 306-1033 |
sborg@nsf.gov |
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone
numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current
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contacts.
New Studies of Martian Meteorite Launched
The National Science Foundation has awarded grants
for seven new projects to study Martian meteorite
ALH84001 in greater depth. The grants are part of
a coordinated program with NASA to further investigate
possible traces of ancient life in the Martian rock.
After the announcement last August that the meteorite
may harbor fossils of ancient Martian life, NSF and
NASA called for further research into the evidence.
The agencies set up a coordinated, interdisciplinary
program which included joint review of research proposals.
NASA announced on June 19 that it had awarded 16 individual
grants under the program.
NSF's seven new grants, totaling nearly $800,000 for
projects over two or three years, will use advanced
instrumentation to further analyze the provocative
rock. Some projects will study ALH84001 itself. Others
will investigate analogous features in terrestrial
rocks from environments that may resemble those of
ancient Mars--hot springs and other extreme habitats
of earthbound microbes--to provide a better context
for understanding the tiny structures in the Martian
rock.
Meteorite ALH84001 is one of about 8,000 meteorites
collected in Antarctica by U.S. researchers. NSF is
the lead agency for managing the collection and distribution
of Antarctic meteorites, done in collaboration with
NASA and the Smithsonian Institution. Samples of ALH84001
are being sent to the researchers from the Antarctic
Meteorite Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center
in Houston. The samples, typically only a few grams
apiece, are handled similarly to the lunar samples
collected during the Apollo program.
The new research will include scanning the meteorite
for extremely fine-scale alteration of the mineral
interface by microbes. Other studies will focus on
the meteorite's carbon isotopes to see if they reflect
a ratio typical of microbial life, and develop a chemical
method to fingerprint biological activity in meteorites
using different isotopes of iron, some of which may
be taken up preferentially by living organisms.
Still other projects will look at mineral particles--oxides
and sulfides of iron--with potential as "biomarkers"
(signs of past life) both in the Martian meteorite
and in bacteria on Earth. Some researchers will attempt
to: fix the temperature and fluid composition under
which the meteorite's minerals formed, presently an
area of controversy; develop thermodynamic models
for mineral alteration in hydrothermal environments;
and delineate the rock's temperature history and its
past infiltration by fluids.
Institutions receiving the grants are the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo,
Iowa State University, Arizona State University, University
of Minnesota, University of California-Santa Cruz,
University of Hawaii, Washington University in St.
Louis, and the California Institute of Technology.
Editors: For further details on the new
grants, contact Scott Borg, NSF polar earth sciences
program manager, at 703-306-1033, or by e-mail at:
sborg@nsf.gov.
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