Fossilized bacteria in meteorites?

A flurry of excitement has been caused by a scientific paper claiming that fossilized bacteria have been found in meteorites. What gave the claims impetus is that the source is a respected leader in astrobiology at NASA named Richard B Hoover.

NASA has since issued a statement causing further confusion as to whether the peer review process on the paper was completed when first submitted to the International Journal on Astrobiology in 2007. It was not accepted for publication at the time and has now been published in the lesser regarded online Journal of Cosmology.

The publication sans comprehensive peer support indicates that the paper probably lacks credibility.

From what I’ve read about this, there’s no reason to get excited about it.
[url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/07/followup-thoughts-on-the-meteorite-fossils-claim/]Phil Plait[url] has a very nice summary, the Journal of Cosmology is a very dubious journal, the scientist didn’t, and it is almost impossible to, prove that there was no contamination, or that the structures are actually bacteria.

PZ also shoots it down at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/did_scientists_discover_bacter.php

This damn Hoover sucks.

whaaa ka ka ka ehm… kaaa