Photo: Building Blocks of Life Formed on Early Mars?

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A chunk of 4.5-billion-year-old Martian rock was found in 1984 in the Allan Hills region of Antarctica. The meteorite contains organic compounds—the building blocks of life.

New analysis of the rock, dubbed Allan Hills 84001, offers the first evidence that the organics were formed on Mars by volcanic activity and were not, as has long been thought, transported to the red planet by meteorites.

Photograph courtesy NASA

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