It would have been an astounding discovery. One that rewrote everything we knew, not just about Mars and its potential to harbor life, but also about the human race and its long-fabled quest to develop something like time travel: scientists studying pieces of Mars rocks found traces of ballpoint and gel pen ink inside.
A remnant of the activity of our descendants from the distant future? Maybe a relic of Mars distant past, when it was inhabited by ancient humans who fled an environmental catastrophe and called Earth their new home?
Unfortunately, while all of those ideas would make for great 1970s dime store paperback sci-fi novels, the reality is much more boring and much more typically human.
Scientists Found Human Contamination Inside Martian Meteorites. Here’s Why.
Publishing their findings in Applied Geochemistry, a team of researchers who analyzed Martian meteorite samples identified several contaminants, including synthetic pigments used in pen ink. They also found polyester fibers, ethyl alcohol, and microscopic diamond particles.
It’s not that the people who previously handled these rocks were especially sloppy in their work. It just goes to show how sensitive these materials are, exchanging tiny particles with the slightest touch.
Martian meteorites don’t arrive in great shape to begin with. They’re blasted off of Mars by impacts from other meteorites, then drift through space before eventually ripping through the Earth’s atmosphere, all the while forming a crispy, crunchy, hardened outer crust. Because of that reinforced exterior, when it comes time to study them, scientists have to cut into them, which introduces another layer of interference and potential contamination, as it requires the use of various saws and solvents to break it open and clean up the dusty mess.
In the case of the meteorites studied for this survey, some of the contaminants were of the oddly mundane variety, and all of which could be traced directly back to the materials worn by the researchers who had previously studied them. The ink was probably from a pen after a researcher jotted down a note. Some lab coat fibers probably drifted onto a space rock. The traces of diamond make the least sense at first. What, did someone punch a Martian meteorite with their wedding ring on? It’s possible, but more likely that it was from the cutting tools.
It all just goes to show that no matter how much you try to sterilize a research environment, some contaminants are always going to sneak through. It reminds me of the recent news that one possible explanation for the high levels of microplastic contamination scientists have been discovering of late could be that the lab gloves they’re using to study them are covered in microplastics.
Luckily, NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently collecting more Martian rock samples, which are expected to be among the cleanest ever studied. Let’s just hope the researchers studying it don’t accidentally sneeze on it and then drop it into a pile of cat hair or something.
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