# Organic Material in Meteorites/Outer Solar System

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-material-in-meteorites-outer-solar-system/741723>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 30, 2015, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-material-in-meteorites-outer-solar-system/741723 "2015-12-30T13:23:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-material-in-meteorites-outer-solar-system/741723/1 "2015-12-30T13:23:48Z")

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Have we yet to examine enough Meteorites (and found no organic material) to determine that there is no life in our solar system beyond the planet earth? (Well, maybe it could be on other planets/moons).

How many Mars rocks and soil samples have we examined to try and answer this question?

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**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-material-in-meteorites-outer-solar-system/741723/2 "2015-12-30T14:19:54Z")

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We have several meteorites that were collected on Earth and originated on Mars. Some scientists think that at least one of them shows evidence of bacteria, but other scientists strongly disagree.

> **[Allan Hills 84001](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Hills_84001)**
>
> Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) is a fragment of a Martian meteorite that was found in the Allan Hills in Antarctica on December 27, 1984, by a team of American meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project. Like other members of the shergottite–nakhlite–chassignite (SNC) group of meteorites, ALH84001 is thought to have originated on Mars. However, it does not fit into any of the previously discovered SNC groups. Its mass upon discovery was 1.93 kilograms (4.3 lb).
> In 1996, a group of scientists found ...

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-material-in-meteorites-outer-solar-system/741723/3 "2015-12-30T18:05:28Z")

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> [@Robert163](#):
>
> Have we yet to examine enough Meteorites (and found no organic material)

We find organic material in (one class of) meteorites[all the time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonaceous_chondrite#Organic_matter).

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-material-in-meteorites-outer-solar-system/741723/4 "2015-12-30T18:38:18Z")

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We’ve found plenty of organic matter from space. So far as we know, we’ve never found matter originating from extraterrestrial life, nor any other evidence of extraterrestrial life. No matter how much material from space we find, we can never be certain that there isn’t life elsewhere, because we might not recognize it, and even if we would, it might not happen to be in the very small quantity of material we’ve observed.