17 December 2013 (Daily Galaxy) - Scientists have found organics from Earth's swamp trapped inside of glass created by a meteor impact almost a million years ago. The tiny pockets, only micrometers across, contain material such as cellulose and proteins. Though the impact glass was found on Earth, scientists say that similar samples could have been thrown into space by this or other blasts, allowing organics to be transported from one planet to another.

"We've shown these glasses are potentially some of the most stable organic repositories imaginable, so yes, if looking for biomarker evidence of life on Mars—or any other planet—impact glasses are prospective targets," said Kieren Howard of the City University of New York.

Approximately 800,000 years ago, a rock 100 to 160 feet (30 to 50 meters) across crashed down in Western Tasmania, Australia. As it slammed into the Earth, temperatures exceeded 1,700 degrees Celsius (3,100 degrees Fahrenheit), melting rock and creating glass sphericals, as well as a quarter-mile wide hole known as the Darwin Crater. In 1915 The geologist Lostus Hill found small pieces of impact glass about 10 kilometers west of the crater, but could not pinpoint the source of it. In 1972 R.J. Ford, a geologist at the University of Tasmania, found the crater in dense bush while working on an access road for a proposed dam site.

"The reason the glass is so abundant seems likely to relate to the presence of volatiles like water at the surface when the impact occurred," lead author Howard told NASA/Astrobiology.net by email.

"A bit like when water from your spatula drips into a frying pan, having the right amount of water at the surface during impact may have increased the magnitude of the explosion, and the production and dispersal of the melt."

In Tasmania, the land was covered by swamps and rainforest, offering sufficient water to create the glass. According to the authors, glass from the Darwin Crater is the most abundant and widely dispersed impact glass on Earth, relative to the crater's size, with glass scattered across 150 square miles (400 square kilometers). In fact, the widespread glass led to the discovery of the crater, which is now filled with younger sediments, in 1972.

Varying types of glass form from impacts, depending on the rocks laying at the surface. Darwin contains quartz-rich rocks that create white colors, though other rock mixes in to create different shades.

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