PIA00289: Mars Life? - Meteorite ALH84001

Target Name: Mars Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun) Mission: Antarctic Meteorite Location and Mapping Project (AMLAMP) Product Size: 722 samples x 564 lines Produced By: Producer ID: S94-032549 Addition Date: 1996-08-08 Other Information: NASA Announcement Primary Data Set: AMLAMP_PAGE Full-Res TIFF: PIA00289.tif (876.2 kB) Full-Res JPEG: PIA00289.jpg (57.73 kB)

Original Caption Released with Image: This 4.5 billion-year-old rock, labeled meteorite ALH84001, is believed to have once been a part of Mars and to contain fossil evidence that primitive life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago. The rock is a portion of a meteorite that was dislodged from Mars by a huge impact about 16 million years ago and that fell to Earth in Antarctica 13,000 years ago. The meteorite was found in Allan Hills ice field, Antarctica, by an annual expedition of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Meteorite Program in 1984. It is preserved for study at the Johnson Space Center's Meteorite Processing Laboratory in Houston.