Fake Fossils
A new research paper is warning scientists and astronomers to watch out for “false fossils” – or pseudofossils – when looking for signs of life on Mars, Science Alert reported.
Researchers Sean McMahon and Julie Cosmidis wrote that Mars, just like Earth, could be rife with stones and minerals that look a lot like real fossils of ancient microbial life – known as microfossils.
“At some stage, a Mars rover will almost certainly find something that looks a lot like a fossil, so being able to confidently distinguish these from structures and substances made by chemical reactions is vital,” McMahon said in a statement.
The researchers explained that microfossils are particularly hard to distinguish even on Earth: Many physical processes related to the weathering and depositing of sedimentary layers can produce mundane rocks that look like ancient remains.
They also noted that even a “chemical garden” – a mechanism in which chemicals mixing can produce structures that look biological – can fool scientists.
Previously, researchers have claimed to have found evidence of mushrooms or bugs on the red planet, only to later be disappointed.
“We have been fooled by life-mimicking processes in the past,” Cosmidis noted.
The authors suggested that further analysis into the chemistry and physics of Mars could shed light on the processes that form pseudofossils.
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