Overview

This book offers an amazing collection of analyzed images from the Red Planet, extremely suggestive of ancestral life on Mars. The book evidences possible remnants of microbial life, and, even further, complex and repetitive structures, analyzed in detail and reminescent of life forms and traits of terrestrial fossils resembling skeletal microalgae and more. This work is a presentation of primary importance for astrobiologists, precambrian micropaleontologists, and lovers of space exploration.

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9781036408275

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'The enormous documentation presented and analyzed in chapter two, consisting of 128 plates with dozens of microphotographs, is very well selected, thematically related and actually presents possible Martian biostructures.'Konrad WoloskiFull Professor of Phycology, Polish Academy of Sciences'Through an abundant photographic documentation made available by NASA and obtained from its Martian rovers, this manuscript puts together a unique set of small-scale morphologies that variously recall those of groups of prokaryotes and eukaryotes...... The work is basically organized in an atlas format, and the abundance of case studies, their descriptive care, and comparative analysis makes it in some ways provocative and capable of stimulating a discussion on the nature of morphologies having terrestrial analogues with a clear bio-induced origin. Overall, it is mainly the case histories presented and attributed to prokaryotes that offer interest, with a large number of cases. Many of the examples discussed are intriguing and well argued. .......As food for thought, however, this manuscript does its job well.'Prof Roberto BarbieriFull Professor , University of Bologna, retired.'This book is the result of years of work by the Authors, who patiently selected images from Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, with the aim of investigating possible traces of life on Mars.The book is highly recommended for scholars seriously interested in the exploration, geobiology, and astrobiology of Mars.'Prof Fabio Vittorio De BlasioGeologist, PhD University of Milano Bicocca'Chapter 2 of this book is very interesting because it opens up new horizons for the search of past life on Mars. Really, the presence of Martian microfossils and ancient microbialites is well supported by the contents of the chapter and confirmed, also, by several figures deeply analysed in their details.'Dr. Nicola CantasanoResearcher, biologist, expert in algae, retired. National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean.

Author Information

Vincenzo Rizzo is a Geologist who earned his PhD in 1970. He is a Senior Researcher at the Italian National Research Council has acquired extensive experience in landslide-risk, geomorphology, and sedimentology, publishing around 150 papers and many official reports on landslide mapping and monitoring. Currently retired since 2007, he is CNR Emeritus, analyses the NASA rover images, and publishes several articles on possible microbialites on Mars. Giorgio Bianciardi, Researcher at the University of Siena, Italy, retired in 2022, is a biologist, doctor and PhD. He has published or presented at national and international conferences 365 scientific works and books in the fields of astrobiology, astronomy and pathology, dealing in particular with morphometric analysis and signal analysis with chaotic methods. He has always dedicated himself to the sectors of astronomy, being the director and founder of astronomical observatories in the area where he lives. The minor planet 55418 is named after him.

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