Curiosity's arm drills into Martian rock.NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER Carbon-based material has been found on Mars. In two papers published on June 7 in Science, NASA researchers report finding organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old Martian rocks and methane in the planet’s atmosphere.
“Whether it holds a record of ancient life, was food for life, or has existed in the absence of life, organic matter in Martian materials holds chemical clues to planetary conditions and processes,” Jennifer Eigenbrode, a biogeochemist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author on one of the studies, says in a statement.
Since 2012, the Curiosity rover has been traversing the surface of Gale Crater, possibly an ancient lake bed, slowly making its way up the side of Mount Sharp that lies within the crater. The rover drilled into sedimentary rock, compounded over billions of years, at four sites in the crater. The rover’s oven was used to heat these rocks to temperatures greater than 900 °F, and the resulting gases were ...
