We have been search the surface of Mars for a good few decades now , and in the appendage have key evidence forwaterand an ancient inhabitable environment . One thing remained elusive though – any star sign of the construction blocks of sprightliness .
Now that looming job has been solve by the Curiosity wanderer . Reporting in the journalScience , researchers have announce that the rover ’s Sample Analysis at Mars ( SAM ) instrument has successfully detected organic fertiliser on Mars , a major breakthrough in our search for lifespan on the Red Planet . Asecond paperalso reports some interesting finding about methane .
“ It ’s a really , really big stepping Harlan Stone , ” Sanjeev Gupta from Imperial College London in the UK , one of the co - authors on the field , told IFLScience . “ It give us great confidence that future missions have the potentiality to discover life . ”
Using theSAM instrument , the squad led by Jennifer Eigenbrode from NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center examined samples of Martian territory about three years ago from mudstone in Gale Crater . It was collected by Curiosity ’s drill from 5 centimeters ( 2 in ) beneath the surface , preserved in sulfur and dating back in time between 3.2 and 3.8 billion years , when water was once present here .
While we have experience organic on Marsbefore , this is the first time they have been linked to larger molecules that could be indicative of life sentence .
stir up the sample distribution in the instrument , the team found grounds for several organic materials , including thiophene , methanethiol , and dimethyl sulfide . These are not compounds directly relate to life , but they are signature of heavy molecules that could have been produced by life .
Organic particle are ace that contain carbon and hydrogen . They can come from non - life sources , such as meteorites , and also from interactions with rocks and water . However , they also come from living matter . So we needed to find some on Mars to prove we were heading in the right-hand direction .
“ The spying of organic matter on Mars is the next step in the hunt for sprightliness on Mars , ” Eigenbrode differentiate IFLScience . “ If the organic affair we find was derive from life , then it could contain signature of that ancient biography . ”
Previous attempts to line up organic fertilizer on Mars , include the Viking missions in 1976 and the Phoenix lander in 2008 , had beeninconclusive . Curiosity ’s uncovering marks the first time we have truly bang about constitutive compounds on the airfoil of Mars .
Thanks to this find , we now know that Mars once had all of the introductory ingredients we sleep with living needs . This will give scientists project future missions confidence that they are on the good track in the search for life-time .
It poses another question though , specifically if life-time did not arise . If Mars had all the same conditions as Earth , include H2O and organics , then why did sprightliness spring up on our planet but not on our neighbor ?
“ If there ’s no spirit on Mars , even though condition are so similar , what made Earth so exceptional ? ” Inge Loes ten Kate from Utrecht University , who was not involve in either study , told IFLScience .
Curiosity will not be capable to resolve this inquiry definitively . But future missions may very well be capable to give us a honest picture , including ESA’sExoMars roverin 2020 . This will be able to drill up to 2 meter ( 6.5 invertebrate foot ) under the surface , 40 time further than Curiosity , to depths where textile is more shielded from radiation .
At these depths , it may be potential to find even more organic compound like this . But it will probably not be until we actually riposte Mars rocks to Earth , as NASA is planning in the 2020s , that we will really be able-bodied to answer if spirit rise on the Red Planet .
“ This uncovering gives us confidence that we ’re not wasting our time , ” say Sanjeev .
NASA ’s Mars 2020 scouter will leave samples on Mars for an uncrewed deputation to one day return them to Earth . NASA / JPL - Caltech
In the second paper also release today , research worker conduct by Christopher Webster from NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) measured methane levels on Mars . They used an instrument on Curiosity called the Tunable Laser Spectrometer over five years to make the discovery .
The most interesting determination is that methane stratum on Mars seem to modify with the time of year . In the wintertime levels drop down to about 0.2 parts per billion , but in the summertime they raise three - faithful to 0.6 part per billion . It might vocalize small , but this upgrade is hugely important .
“ Very few gases on Earth change by a factor of three , ” Webster told IFLScience . “ So this immense change allow us to predominate out some thing and causes . ”
This is exciting for another ESA military mission , one that ’s presently in field around Mars , called theTrace Gas Orbiter(TGO ) . Scientists are using this spacecraft to study flatulency in the atmosphere of Mars and pinpoint some of the source of them on the surface .
It ’s reckon this methane has been trapped in reservoirs underground , and over the summer as temperature increase , it is exhaust from the surface into the air . Where this methane come from is n’t clean , and it may simply be the result of geological processes on Mars .
But one other rootage of methane is , of class , life . Coupled with the first composition , it paints a tantalizing photograph of what might be happening on Mars . And if you let your judgment tramp , thing for sure do get a bit interesting .
“ you could hypothesize that there might have been early sprightliness , and the organic might have been the remnants from that , and those organics might have acquire methane , and that methane is being stored in the surface of Mars , ” said Kate .
It will be years before we truly jazz if that might have been the font . But this up-to-the-minute discovery secernate us that , for all the billions of dollar we ’ve spent exploring Mars , it just might be hide the answer to the enquiry we ’ve wanted to have it away all along : Are we alone , and if so , why ?
