Could the indestructible Curiosity have made the discovery of the century? NASA announced this week that the rover, which has been wandering around Gale Crater for nine years, has detected a higher than average proportion of carbon-12 in a significant number of samples.
For this, the rover heated 24 rock samples to 850°C in order to vaporize them, and analyzed their composition with a spectrometer. Results ? In nearly half of the cases, the carbon-13 level was well below what it should be, if we rely on the analysis of the atmosphere of the red planet and…
