Does a 140 year old French meteorite contain signs of life?

The Orgueil meteorite struck France almost 140 years ago... now some scientists are arguing that it contains evidence of cyanobacteria (a type of organism associated with early life on earth):
www.msnbc.msn.com...
(the story may be rolled down the page over the next couple of days)

If life on earth did arise elsewhere, where is it from? This article doesn't specify where the meteorite originated. One would assume the origin of a life-bearing meteorite to be Mars... but if the red planet isn't the source...?



[edit on 30-8-2004 by onlyinmydreams]

[edit on 30-8-2004 by onlyinmydreams]

[edit on 30-8-2004 by onlyinmydreams]

If not from Mars, then maybe from some Comet that maybe orbits through ours AND another life-bearing Solar System?

maybee the astroid got the cyanobacteria from earth when it landed??

If there was life on that meteorite, it would have surrendered to the first foreign scientist that saw the thing.

But in all seriousness... it wouldn't be hard to pick up a couple of prokaryotes after sitting around for a century and a half. I won't hold my breath.

from the report there appears to be blue ooze left over in the meteorite. pretty good stuff if you ask me. just wait till they tell us what kind of exposed membranes these things have. well all be stoked.

This really is a fascinating story, I'll be keeping tabs on this one. Funny how some of the biggest stories sneak up on us like this.

Fascinating....and about time. Looks like we still have to wait though... Wonder if this one will drop out of the limelight as well....