NASA’s Perseverance rover has found an intriguing menagerie of organic molecules in a Martian crater, but their source remains unclear.

  • Arotrios
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    11 year ago

    Interesting article. They buried the lede a bit - this is the crux of the discovery:

    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.

    …which means that the likelihood of organic life having existed there has increased. Also, the fact that:

    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.”

    By finding the same compounds in multiple locations, this indicates that they weren’t the results of a single meteor impact, but likely formed on Mars. They also indicate that water was more abundant than in the past.

    It makes me wonder what we’ll find beneath the surface, where you could have underground aquifers and micro-climates that with the potential to support living organisms.