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NASA's Curiosity rover finds new evidence suggesting life on Mars

Science June 8, 2018
NASA’s unmanned rover discovered organic material and methane preserved in the planet’s rocks, providing new evidence that Mars may have supported ancient life.

Ancient organic material & mysterious methane! rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks suggesting the planet could’ve supported ancient life + new evidence in the atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on Mars:

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Oh, these are in my neighborhood... Methane swells each summer and ancient carbon-compounds locked in rocks. I haven't found life on Mars, but signs say…we’re on the right track.

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"This is a significant breakthrough because it means there are organic materials preserved in some of the harshest environments on Mars"

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With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life. I’m confident that our ongoing and planned missions will unlock even more breathtaking discoveries on the Red Planet.

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The Holy Grail – Ever since we landed on Mars, we have been looking for organic molecules—the complex carbon chains that on Earth form the building blocks of life. Today NASA reported Curiosity rover has finally detected them. Not Life but we are a step closer. Drill photo.

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With methane and some form of organic molecules found on Mars, how does that relate to microbe life?

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Methane can be made by living things, as well as geologic processes. Organic materials in general can be building blocks of life, or a signature of life itself. I haven't found microbial life yet, but finding methane and other organics are good signs in the continuing search.

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Are the discoveries announced today directly related to the recent successful drilling that Curiosity performed?

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The team and I are thrilled to be drilling again on Mars, but today's announcement of ancient organics came from a previous drill sites nicknamed "Mojave" and "Confidence Hills."

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It has to do with whether the image is raw, which shows the sort of butterscotch hue of the sky or "white balanced," which makes the sky look blue. White balancing makes rocks appear as they would under Earth-like lighting conditions, and helps my geologists in their analysis.

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Our discovery of organic molecules on Mars is exciting, but we did not discover life. If we discovered organic molecules on an exoplanet, it might not mean life either. To explain:

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Just like yeast isn't bread, organic carbons don’t = life. Not all yeast makes bread, and not all organic material helps build or comes from life. As yeast is an ingredient in bread, organic materials are a necessary ingredient for life as we know it.

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has identified a variety of organic molecules, the carbon-based building blocks of life as we know it, in 3.5-billion-year-old Red Planet rocks.

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