CI1 fossils refer to alleged morphological evidence of

microfossils A microfossil is a fossil that is generally between 0.001 mm and 1 mm in size, the visual study of which requires the use of light or electron microscopy. A fossil which can be studied with the naked eye or low-powered magnification, ...

found in five CI1

carbonaceous chondrite Carbonaceous chondrites or C chondrites are a class of chondritic meteorites comprising at least 8 known groups and many ungrouped meteorites. They include some of the most primitive known meteorites. The C chondrites represent only a small prop ...

meteorite fall A meteorite fall, also called an observed fall, is a meteorite collected after its fall from outer space was observed by people or automated devices. Any other meteorite is called a "find". There are more than 1,100 documented falls listed in w ...

: Alais, Orgueil, Ivuna, Tonk and Revelstoke. The research was published in March 2011 in the

fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts * Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe" * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * The Fringe, the ...

Journal of Cosmology The ''Journal of Cosmology'' describes itself as a peer-reviewed open access journal, open access scientific journal of cosmology, although the quality of the process has been questioned. The journal has been closely related historically with a si ...

'' by Richard B. Hoover, an engineer. However, NASA distanced itself from Hoover's claim and his lack of expert peer-reviews.

Findings

Hoover's team used Environmental (

ESEM The environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) that allows for the option of collecting electron micrographs of specimens that are moisture, wet, scanning electron microscope#Sample preparation, unc ...

) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy ( FESEM) to analyze the meteorite samples, studying internal surfaces. Hoover also produced electron micrographs which he believes resemble the shape of trichomic

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

and other trichomic

prokaryotes A prokaryote () is a single-celled organism that lacks a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. The word ''prokaryote'' comes from the Greek πρό (, 'before') and κάρυον (, 'nut' or 'kernel').Campbell, N. "Biology:Concepts & Connec ...

such as the filamentous sulfur bacteria. For comparison, Hoover compared the samples to those of terrestrial minerals and biological materials. Hoover concludes from these results that the CI1 fossils are indigenous to the samples. The claims were initially submitted to the ''

International Journal of Astrobiology The ''International Journal of Astrobiology'' (IJA) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 2002 and published by Cambridge University Press that covers research on the prebiotic chemistry, origin, evolution, distribution, and future ...

'', which rejected the paper, but were eventually published by the

''. NASA distanced itself from Hoover's claims, and the claims were debunked soon after publication.

References

Astrobiology Chondrite meteorites Meteorite mineralogy and petrology {{astrobiology-stub

Findings

See also

References