2023-07-13 11:01:00
In February 2021 NASA’s Perseverance rover landed inside Jezero Crater on Mars, the site of an ancient lake basin with high potential for habitability and now they have reported the discovery of organic molecules on the surface. This discovery might provide scientists with new clues as to whether life ever existed on the red planet. On another occasion, molecules with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur were detected in Martian meteorites and in the Gale crater.
According to the British newspaper Daily Mail, NASA’s Perseverance rover found organic compounds in Jezero crater thatAlthough they do not necessarily suggest life, they are molecules associated with biological and non-biological processes.
Have you ever found an old book and blown the dust off to see what story it might have to tell? That’s pretty much what I’m doing here. I came upon an interesting boulder, hit it with a puff of compressed air, and am taking a closer look. I’ll see if I can get a peek inside, too. pic.twitter.com/gekZCiFWAy
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere)
July 11, 2023
The team led by researchers from the California Institute of Technology reported their discovery in the journal Nature. The researchers noted that there might be a number of explanations for the origins of organic matter, including interactions between water and rock, or deposits of interplanetary dust or meteorites. Biotic origins, derived from living organisms, have not been ruled out: “The presence and distribution of preserved organic matter on the surface of Mars may provide key information regarding the Martian carbon cycle and the planet’s potential to host life throughout its history. Our findings suggest that there may be a diversity of aromatic molecules predominant on the Martian surface.”
“These potential organic molecules are largely found within minerals linked to aqueous processesindicating that these processes may have played a key role in organic synthesis, transport, or preservation,” they explained.
The team said that samples will need to be returned to Earth for laboratory analysisin order to confirm the origin of the molecules.
Meet two more of my Martian samples that I’ve collected while on my quest of #SamplingMars. One of my scientists explains how my rock cores known as “Salette” and “Coulettes” hold exciting clues regarding the Red Planet’s watery past ��: pic.twitter.com/9OlChI70IT
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere)
July 5, 2023
Joseph Razzell Hollis, co-author of the paper and a researcher at the Museum of Natural History, said: “So far we are unable to identify any specific organic molecules from the databut finding samples that may contain organic compounds, we marked them as very interesting for further study and Perseverance stored several samples that will hopefully be returned to Earth for further analysis.”.
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