‘Building blocks of life’ discovered on Mars in 10 different rock samples
NASA’s Perseverance rover has found an intriguing menagerie of organic molecules in a Martian crater, but their source remains unclear
NASA’s Perseverance rover has found a diverse menagerie of organic molecules in a Martian crater, a new study reports.
Organic compounds are molecules composed of carbon, and often include other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur.
Previously, scientists had detected several types of organic molecules of Martian origin — in meteorites blasted off Mars by cosmic impacts that landed on Earth, and in Gale Crater on the Red Planet, which NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring since 2012.
“They are an exciting clue for astrobiologists, since they are often thought of as building blocks of life,” study lead author Sunanda Sharma, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told Space.com.
However, “importantly, they can be created by processes not related to life,” Sharma emphasized. As such, investigating what organic molecules exist on the Red Planet and how they were created is key to understanding what may or may not be linked to life on Mars.
“As planetary scientists and astrobiologists, we are very careful with laying out claims — claiming that life is the source of organics or possible biosignatures is a last-resort hypothesis, meaning we would need to rule out any non-biological source of origin,” Sharma said.
In the new study, Sharma and her colleagues analyzed data from Perseverance. In February 2021, the rover landed within Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake basin that prior work suggested displayed high potential for past habitability.
The crater floor also possesses clays and other minerals that may preserve organic materials.
Specifically, the scientists examined data from the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument onboard Perseverance. SHERLOC is the first tool on Mars capable of conducting fine-scale mapping and analysis of organic molecules.
The researchers focused on SHERLOC data from Máaz and Séítah, two rock formations on the Jezero Crater floor. When ultraviolet light from SHERLOC illuminates organic compounds, they can glow much like material beneath a blacklight. The fingerprint of wavelengths in the glow from a molecule can help identify it.
Sharma and her colleagues found signs of organic molecules in all 10 targets that Perseverance drilled into at Máaz and Séítah, covering a span of time from at least about 2.3 billion to 2.6 billion years ago.
These “point to the possibility that building blocks of life could have been present for a long time on the surface of Mars, in more than one place,” Sharma said.
This annotated image shows a rock target called “Garde,” as analyzed by the Mars rover Perseverance’s SHERLOC instrument. This data was taken on Sept. 18, 2021, the 207th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/LANL/PhotonSys)
The scientists discovered evidence of many different classes of organic molecules. These occurred in a variety of patterns in space within Máaz and Séítah, suggesting they might have originated from a number of different minerals and mechanisms of formation. These organic compounds mostly appeared connected to minerals linked to water.
“Seeing that the possible organic signals differ in terms of type, number of detections and distribution between the two units of the crater floor was surprising and exciting,” Sharma said. “That opens the possibility of different formation, preservation or transportation mechanisms across the crater and, more broadly, the surface of Mars.”
The scientists could not identify specific organic molecules. “To confirm the presence of organics and their specific types, we would need the samples to be returned to Earth,” Sharma said. “That’s our goal.”
The scientists detailed their findings online July 12 in the journal Nature.
See more here livescience.com
Header image: BBC
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VOWG
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Cool, let’s send people there.
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Joe
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There is No rover on mars. There was No moon landing.
https://centerforaninformedamerica.com/moondoggie/
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Alan
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Got a question for you. Since you believe everything thing conected to space is fake. Why don’t we just fake really interesting things?
Why spend billions to send fake astronauts to the moon and bring back rocks?
Why send fake rovers to Mars and take pictures of rocks.
Other than a small number of space enthusiasts, no one is interested that stuff.
Why not abandoned UFO bases on the moon?
Ancient ruins on and life on Mars?
That would really get people stirred up.
Plus the number of people who would know it’s all fake would be staggering.
This is the 21st century. Your beliefs fail the logic test.
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aaron
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logic says water is not curved, water LEVEL, sea LEVEL, ever ear of sea curve or water curve?
me neither
planet PLANE T, its all in front of your eyes, if you care to open them
plane
plān
noun
A carpenter’s tool with an adjustable blade for smoothing and leveling wood.
A trowel-shaped tool for smoothing the surface of clay, sand, or plaster in a mold.
A surface containing all the straight lines that connect any two points on it.
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Howdy
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“Logic says water is not curved”
Logic? Well… Regardless of all else you wish to defy, the meniscus shows that it is.
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aaron
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What?
Herb Rose
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Hi Aaron,
Rent a boat and some binoculars and sail out to sea from a city with tall buildings. Periodically turn and look back at the land. You will see its sink and soon only the tops of the buildings will be visible. Jump into the sea, since there is no where to return to, and save yourself the agonizing death by thirst or starvation.
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aaron
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“Rent a boat and some binoculars and sail out to sea from a city with tall buildings. Periodically turn and look back at the land. You will see its sink and soon only the tops of the buildings will be visible”
How exactly does that statement prove the globe THEORY,
the further you get from something the smaller it appears?
that is your proof of globe earth
Nice try herb, not very logical though
Herb Rose
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Hi Aaron
The buildings don’t just get smaller, they sink so the tops remain visible while the lower parts disappear.
What does anything you say have to do with logic or reason? It is just your belief and like so many, you are unwilling to accept or consider anything that doesn’t agree with what you believe or even make any effort that could challenge your infallibility. All you need to do is cross the equator and the North Star or Southern Cross will disappear from the sky. You want to remain ignorant and an idiot, that’s your choice but don’t tell other people they are illogical because they believe evidence that you deny because of your closed mind..
Herb
aaron
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nasa and ‘space’ are a money pit for some, follow the money
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aaron
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edit:
money maker not money pit
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aaron
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Hey herb
grow up a bit, what is with the hostility and name calling, is your position that weak, why so defensive??
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Herb Rose
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I’m tired with dealing with stupid people.What compels idiots, like you, to take every opportunity to broadcast just how ignorant you are?
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aaron
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I think what you are doing is called projection, that’s fine
get some rest
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