n accurate scientific study of ancient meteorite rocks that fell on Earth 20 years ago revealed that there were "essential components of life" in them, a new twist in the search for space creatures.
Scientists believe there are water and organic matter on the meteorites, about 4.5 billion years old, roughly the age of Earth.
Although finding these components above the meteorites does not mean they were vibrant, it may indicate that there is life elsewhere in the universe.
The meteorite Zaj and Monahans are believed to have originated from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They were examined when they landed on Earth in Morocco and Texas respectively in 1998 and found water.
But at this time scientists did not have the technology to look for amino acids, the raw materials of all kinds of proteins.
With scientific and technological development, scientists have been able to analyze the molecular structure of saline crystals found on meteorite rocks, and team leader Queenie Chan, a researcher at the Open University, has discovered amino acids.
"We have collected nanocrystals from the meteorites and have been dissolved with water so that we can extract the amino acids and separate any organic compounds for analysis," Chan said.
"We conducted our experiments at one of the best plants in the world at NASA, which means avoiding any possibility of contamination even with dust trapped in the air."
Chan said his research team believed that the salt found above ZAG and Moonhans was in Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, while the meteorites themselves originated from another asteroid in the same belt.
"Each saline crystal, about two millimeters long and characterized by blue, is basically a small piece filled with the basic organic components of life," Chan explained.
"The most amazing thing is that the salt crystals from the meteorites are believed to have come from Ceres, the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, which is likely to be a suitable place for life," she said.
However, Chan pointed out that at one point, the meteorite temperature reached 950 ° C, which means that any trace of water may be evaporated. "This proves to us that salt crystals on the one hand and meteorites on the other come from different asteroids,