NASA announced Thursday that its Mars rover, Curiosity, has discovered organic molecules — the “building blocks” of life — on Mars.
“While this doesn’t mean that we’ve found concrete evidence of life on Mars, it is a good sign in our continuing search,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted. “We’re sending the Mars 2020 rover to dig deeper!”
According to the journal Science, “Past detections have been so faint that they could be just contamination.” It published two studies Thursday, one describing the 3 billion-year-old organic compounds found in the Martian mudstone, and the other explaining the discovery of one particular compound, methane.
Scientists can not yet tell whether the recently discovered organic material comes from life or from a geological process. But the discovery did show it is possible for organic molecules to be preserved for billions of years, despite the harshness of the Martian environment.
Curiosity found the organic molecules in Gale Crater, which scientists believe used to contain a lake the size of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. The nuclear-powered, SUV-sized rover has been sifting samples of soil and rock on the planet in search of organic molecules since August 2012.
