An electron microscope view of a collection of "fossils" found in what is believed to be a fragment from a meteor that exploded over Sri Lanka. Picture: University of Cardiff Source: Supplied
CONTROVERSY is raging over whether fossilised algae has been found inside the remains of a meteor which exploded over Sri Lanka last year.
A Cardiff University team of astrobiologists examined specimens forwarded to them by the Sri Lankan Medical Research Institute when "curious features" appeared under the microscope.
Some 628 fragments were recovered from rice fields after the fireball exploded in the sky on December 29.
The Cardiff researchers have published a report in the Journal of Cosmology that the fused rocks appear to contain fossilised "biological structures" buried within three of them.
Jamie Wallis of Cardiff University said the density of the rock and its composition indicates it may have been the remains of a comet.
Electron microscope images reveal microfossils of about 100 micrometres across. Researchers say they appear similar to an almost extinct class of marine algae.
A map published in the Journal of Cosmology showing where a fragment from a meteor believed to contain fossilised algae was recovered. Picture: University of Cardiff
Another image shows what researchers say are unusually long and thin fossilised flagella (a set of cells forming a whip-like shape to propel tiny organisms). Their size and shape indicate a weightless, low pressure environment, the researchers say.
The claims have generated controversy among the scientific community. Previous similar "fossilised" structures found in meteorites have been dismissed as either later contamination or simple crystalline structures.
This supposedly fossilised structure found in a meteor. Picture: University of Cardiff
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