World-first research from Australian scientists Dr Tony Taylor (ANSTO) and Professor John Barry (University of Queensland) published today in the prestigious Journal of Microscopy, confirms the theory of NASA** scientists that the Antarctic Martian meteorite ALH84001 which crashed to Earth in 1984 shows life once existed on Mars.
NASA scientists found microscopic fossils of primitive bacteria-like organisms in the meteorite but the truth as to whether or not these were biological has been hotly debated in the scientific community.
According to Dr Taylor this latest research seriously challenges doubts of sceptical scientists by discovering that many bacteria match the features found in the Martian meteorite.
"Our research shows that the structures found in the NASA meteorite were more than likely made by bacteria present on Mars four billion years ago, before life even started on Earth," said Dr Taylor.
"Dr Taylor explained the discovery was the product of painstaking research conducted with other scientists in the 1990s that vastly improved imaging techniques to study bacterial structures. Ultraviolet light was the key and resulted in the detailed analysis of 82 different bacterial types - a major improvement on the 25 identified at that time.
"We became very excited when we discovered that many of the bacteria found had the same biosignature, which resembles a tiny backbone surrounded by cartilage, as that of the Martian fossils," Dr Taylor said.
"The bacteria that we studied had eleven characteristics identical to the fossilised bacteria in the meteorite, demonstrating beyond reasonable doubt that the features in the meteorite had a biological origin.
"If the fossils found in the meteorite were found here on Earth, no one would question they were biogenic," he said.
University of Queensland’s Professor John Barry said it was a breakthrough of great magnitude for astrobiology.
"A significant aspect of Dr Taylor's finding is the close match between the size and shape of crystalline deposits found in the Martian fossil as compared with magnetite crystals found in living bacteria," said Professor Barry.
"Some of the most exciting deposits were found in bacteria living in a pond at a Brisbane Golf course," he said.
Emeritus Professor Imre Friedmann, now at NASA Ames Research Center in California, said he was thrilled by the news.
"When I received my e-mail from Tony with a copy of his new research paper I realised that it contained no less than an elegant confirmation of our findings which were doubted by many of our scientific colleagues," he said.
"We found microscopic structures in the Martian meteorite ALH84001 which, we suggested, have features that are telltale signs of biological origin and could have been produced only by bacteria.
"The Study of Taylor and Barry now presents evidence that the same features occur in a wide range of bacteria that live on Earth today. The tiny structures, chains of crystals of the mineral magnetite, are comparable to animal skeletons on a microscopic scale, " Professor Friedmann said.
Dr Taylor is a biophysicist and is currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow at ANSTO developing a revolutionary new technique for the cultivation of cells that make them grow and metabolise much faster.