NASA detects organic matter on Mars
18 Dec 2014 11:36 PM GMT
In a promising find, the NASA Curiosity rover has detected organic molecules - the building blocks of all known forms of terrestrial life - on Mars.
The organic molecules, found by the team responsible for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on Curiosity, were in a drilled sample of the Sheepbed mudstone in Gale crater - the rover’s landing site - the US space agency said in a statement.
Organic molecules consist of a wide variety of molecules made primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.
However, organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that do not involve life.
Examples of non-biological sources include chemical reactions in water at ancient Martian hot springs or delivery of organic material to Mars by interplanetary dust or fragments of asteroids and comets.
The surface of Mars is currently inhospitable to life as we know it, but there is evidence that the Red Planet once had a climate that could have supported life billions of years ago.
The organic molecules, found by the team responsible for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on Curiosity, were in a drilled sample of the Sheepbed mudstone in Gale crater - the rover’s landing site - the US space agency said in a statement.
Organic molecules consist of a wide variety of molecules made primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.
However, organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that do not involve life.
Examples of non-biological sources include chemical reactions in water at ancient Martian hot springs or delivery of organic material to Mars by interplanetary dust or fragments of asteroids and comets.
The surface of Mars is currently inhospitable to life as we know it, but there is evidence that the Red Planet once had a climate that could have supported life billions of years ago.
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