Testing the survival of microfossils in artificial martian sedimentary meteorites during entry into Earth's atmosphere: the STONE 6 experiment - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Icarus Année : 2010

Testing the survival of microfossils in artificial martian sedimentary meteorites during entry into Earth's atmosphere: the STONE 6 experiment

Frédéric Foucher
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Frances Westall
Franz Brandstätter
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René Demets
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John Parnell
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Charles S. Cockell
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Howell G. M. Edwards
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Jean-Michel Bény
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André Brack
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Résumé

If life ever appeared on Mars, could we find traces of primitive life embedded in sedimentary meteorites? To answer this question, a 3.5 billion-year-old volcanic sediment containing microfossils was embedded in the heat shield of a space capsule in order to test survival of the rock and the microfossils during entry into the Earth's atmosphere (the STONE 6 experiment). The silicified volcanic sediment from the Kitty's Gap Chert (Pilbara, Australia) is considered to be an excellent analogue for Noachian-age volcanic sediments. The microfossils in the chert are also analogues for potential martian life. An additional goal was to investigate the survival of living microorganisms () protected by a 2 cm thick layer of rock in order to test whether living endolithic organisms could survive atmospheric entry when protected by a rocky coating.
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hal-00609751 , version 1 (20-07-2011)

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Frédéric Foucher, Frances Westall, Franz Brandstätter, René Demets, John Parnell, et al.. Testing the survival of microfossils in artificial martian sedimentary meteorites during entry into Earth's atmosphere: the STONE 6 experiment. Icarus, 2010, 207 (2), pp.616. ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2009.12.014⟩. ⟨hal-00609751⟩

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