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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNASA Rover Finds Active and Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4413The first definitive detection of Martian organic chemicals in material on the surface of Mars came from analysis by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover of sample powder from this mudstone target, "Cumberland." Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
DECEMBER 16, 2014
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory's drill.
"This temporary increase in methane -- sharply up and then back down -- tells us there must be some relatively localized source," said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a member of the Curiosity rover science team. "There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock."
Researchers used Curiosity's onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory a dozen times in a 20-month period to sniff methane in the atmosphere. During two of those months, in late 2013 and early 2014, four measurements averaged seven parts per billion. Before and after that, readings averaged only one-tenth that level.
Curiosity also detected different Martian organic chemicals in powder drilled from a rock dubbed Cumberland, the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars. These Martian organics could either have formed on Mars or been delivered to Mars by meteorites.
Organic molecules, which contain carbon and usually hydrogen, are chemical building blocks of life, although they can exist without the presence of life. Curiosity's findings from analyzing samples of atmosphere and rock powder do not reveal whether Mars has ever harbored living microbes, but the findings do shed light on a chemically active modern Mars and on favorable conditions for life on ancient Mars.
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NASA Rover Finds Active and Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars (Original Post)
G_j
Dec 2014
OP
hunter
(38,317 posts)1. The theory that Mars had life while the Earth was still inhospitable still looks good to me.
We may all be Martians, evolved from life that first evolved on Mars.
There are at least three domains of life on earth, the Archaea, the Bacteria, and the Eukaryota.
That's interesting.
Eukaryotes like ourselves, and all the other life forms we commonly call plants and animals, are possibly a mash-mix of Archaea and Bacteria.
Maybe one sort of life, possibly the Archaea, is Martian and the other sort, Bacteria, was home-grown here on Earth. Stir them up in a pot together, wait a few billion years, and here we are, speculating about our own origins.
randome
(34,845 posts)2. Nicely put.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]
pampango
(24,692 posts)3. Great article. Thanks for finding and posting it, G_j. n/t