ALH84001

The above image seems like a normal rock to all of us but in fact it is a meteorite that is from mars that fell on earth in the antartic side. What makes this meteorite so much special is that it fell from an era from mars during which mars had water on its surface and was discovere in 1996. The classification of this meteorite was done under perfect conditions and it proved to be a real one. Any meteorite is checked by three tests : 

i)It's nickel content is in mid-range while the nickel content on earth rocks is very low or very high.

ii)It must not have any fuel residue on it as it fell from the atmosphere and was heated only by friction and should have a hard outer crust due to burning.

iii)It must have chondrules. Chondrules are small spots left on a stony meteorite formed due to heating at high temprature and cooling at very low temprature simultaneously.

ALH84001 passed all these tests and then was seen under an electron microscope and the results were shocking.

In the above figure you can clearly see small nanoscopic microbes and lifeforms. This meteorite shocked the world. A book known as "Deception Point" is based on this written by Dan Brown.

"If this discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered. Its implications are as far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined. Even as itpromises answers to some of our oldest questions, it poses still others even more fundamental"

         President Bill Clinton, in a press conference

                  following the discovery of ALH84001
                                                 on August 7, 1996