The Mini-Lab of Mars Curiosity Rover on board has contributed to confirming the existence of the largest organic molecules that have ever been found on the red planet. The trio of long chain connections Saved in Mars-bottom is considered the remains of prebiotic components needed to develop life on earth. Researchers published evidence on 24 March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesThat builds on their work that started more than ten years ago.
In May 2013, Curiosity started drilling in an area that is known as’Yellowknife Bay‘In the Gale crater. Scientists were interested in investigating the region, not for what it is today, but for what it may have been millions of years ago. Yellowknife Bay was not a random chosen name-the stage of the dry and deserted landscape still hints to a large, long-designed lacquer bed.
Curiosity’s Soil Survey, nicknamed ‘Cumberland’, has been analyzed several times in his monster analysis on Mars (SAM) on board Mini-Lab and has yielded a series of new information About the past of the planet. In particular, it is rich in clay minerals that often form in water and contain sufficient amounts of sulfur to help retain organic molecules. Cumberland also has nitrates crucial for healthy animal and plant life, as well as methane that contains a specific type of carbon that is associated with biological processes.
The most striking, however, was a convincing confirmation that Yellowknife Bay ever organized an old lake, which further supports the theory that Mars once was the home of a kind of life.
Credit: Nasa/Dan Gallagher
Experts have since studied for years that data from SAM Mini-Lab analyzes have been gained. In a recent experiment, a team worked with Glavin and Caroline Freissinet, an astrobiologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research to find evidence of amino acids in the Cumberland -Steek test. Although they did not find them that time, something else caught their attention: trace quantities of three carbon chain molecules known as a dean, undecaan and dodecan. With 10, 11 and 12 carbon atoms respectively, researchers believe that these organic compounds can be remaining fragments of fatty acids needed for cell membrane formation and other biological functions.
However, these fatty acids are not always definitive proof of life. Geological events such as water mineral interactions in hydrothermal ventilation openings can also produce comparable molecules. That said, the length of many of the carbon chains of Cumberland-bottom could otherwise suggest. Depending on the molecule, the organic life-fatty acids often contain chains of 11-13 carbon atoms, while non-biological fatty acids usually contain 12 or fewer carbon atoms. This means that at least some of the large organic molecules that have been detected by Freissinet’s team once existed in organic life. What is more, the discovery is enlightened that Mars’s bios signatures cannot survive tens of millions of years of exposure to destructive oxidation and radiation.
“Our study proves that, even today, by analyzing Mars samples, we can detect chemical signatures of the previous life, if it ever existed on Mars,” who also served Freissinet, who also served as the main author of the latest study, said in a statement.
“There are indications that liquid water existed for millions of years and probably much longer in Gale Crater, which means that there was enough time for life-forming chemistry in these crater-lake environments on Mars,” added Daniel Glavin, studied Co-author and Monster senior scientist at Nas’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Unfortunately Freissinet and colleagues can only discover so much with Sam Mini-Lab from Curiosity. Organic fatty acid chains are often much longer than just 12 carbon atoms, but the rover’s equipment is not designed to detect them. Fortunately, NASA is ready and willing to help in the next chapter of Martian Exploration.
“We are ready to take the next big step and bring Mars samples to our laboratories to arrange the debate about life on Mars,” Said Glavin.
Glavin, Freissinet and colleagues may wait a while for that next step. While NASA has long planned for one Mars Sample Return MissionA balloon budget and an uncertain future can already push the project in 2040.
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