Experts say they have found microfilaments created by fossilised Martian microbes on the meteorite, known as ALH-77005, after using advanced imaging techniques. Dr Ildiko Gyollai and his team from the Hungarian Academy of Science (HAS) Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences used optical microscopy and infrared technology to study the textures and features of the thin sample of ALH-77005. The textures and features left behind by organisms are called “biosignatures”.
They also analysed the minerals in the stone and undertook isotope tests to find out if there were any chemical compounds required for sustaining life.
The rock they had been looking at was discovered in Antarctica by the Japanese National Institute of Polar Research on a mission from 1977-78.
The researchers concluded the microscopic filaments could be evidence of bacteria that survive by eating iron dust.
The study's authors said in the paper: “Comparing recent results and interpretation with other meteorites, it can be raised, that on these similarities the microbially mediated biosignatures can be proposed microbial mediation by iron oxidising bacteria on Mars.”
Scientists have raised hope there could be life on Mars (Image: GETTY)
But this is just the latest in a series of revelations made about the possibility of life on Mars.
In 1996, NASA made similar findings on a different space rock that crash into the Earth 13,000 years ago which had been produced by the Red Planet four billion years earlier.
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