An Origin of Life on Mars
Evidence of past liquid water on the surface of Mars suggests that this world once had habitable conditions and leads to the question of life. If there was life on Mars, it would be interesting to determine if it represented a separate origin from life on Earth. To determine the biochemistry and gen...
| Published in: | Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
2010
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| Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2845199 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20452949 https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a003509 |
| Summary: | Evidence of past liquid water on the surface of Mars suggests that this world once had habitable conditions and leads to the question of life. If there was life on Mars, it would be interesting to determine if it represented a separate origin from life on Earth. To determine the biochemistry and genetics of life on Mars requires that we have access to an organism or the biological remains of one—possibly preserved in ancient permafrost. A way to determine if organic material found on Mars represents the remains of an alien biological system could be based on the observation that biological systems select certain organic molecules over others that are chemically similar (e.g., chirality in amino acids). |
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