NASA’s Curiosity rover finds organic matter on Mars

Organic matter has been found on Mars in soil samples taken from 3 billion-year-old mudstone in the Gale crater by the Curiosity rover, NASA announced Thursday. The rover has also detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.

The search for life outside Earth focuses on the building blocks of life as we know it, which includes organic compounds and molecules – although these can exist without life. Organic matter can be one of several things: a record detailing ancient life, a food source for life or something that exists in the place of life.

No matter its purpose, these work as “chemical clues” for researchers about Mars.

Methane is considered the simplest organic molecule. It’s present in other places in our solar system that could host life, like Saturn and Jupiter’s moons Enceladus, Europa and Titan. And if life does exist elsewhere, it may be very different or even form differently from how we understand life on Earth.

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The new findings are also detailed in two studies published Thursday in the journal Science. Together, the researchers believe these findings to be “breakthroughs in astrobiology.”

“We have greatly expanded our search for organic compounds, which is fundamental in the search for life,” said Paul Mahaffy, study author and director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The two studies build on and advance smaller detections of atmospheric methane and ancient organic compounds on Mars. Those detections either caused debate or lacked the context for understanding, the researchers said.

But Curiosity’s data are providing a clearer and more conclusive picture of the conditions and processes on Mars – and what it may have been like on the Red Planet billions of years ago, when conditions were more suitable for life.

“With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “I’m confident that our ongoing and planned missions will unlock even more breathtaking discoveries on the Red Planet.”

A self-portrait taken by NASA's Curiosity rover on June 15, 2018. A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility around the planet, including at the rover's location in Gale Crater.

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover tweeted out a new image on January 23, 2018: "I'm back! Did you miss me?" The selfie is part of a fresh batch of images the rover beamed back from Mars.

Five years ago and 154 million miles away, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover successfully landed on the planet. Take a look back at what the rover has been up to these past five years, including this selfie it took on January 19, 2016.

The bright blue speck in the middle of this image is NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The image was taken from another NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is in orbit above the planet, on June 6, 2017.

Curiosity has temperature and humidity sensors mounted on its mast. Calculations in 2015 based on Curiosity's measurements indicate that Mars could be dotted with tiny puddles of salty water at night.

The Mars rover Curiosity does a test drill on a rock dubbed "Bonanza King" to determine whether it would be a good place to dig deeper and take a sample. But after the rock shifted, the test was stopped.

Wheel tracks from Curiosity are seen on the sandy floor of a lowland area dubbed "Hidden Valley" in this image.

The rover recently encountered this iron meteorite, which NASA named "Lebanon." This find is similar in shape and luster to iron meteorites found on Mars by the previous generation of rovers. A portion of the rock was outlined by NASA scientists.

Curiosity took this nighttime photo of a hole it drilled May 5 to collect soil samples. NASA said this image combines eight exposures taken after dark on May 13.

This view of the twilight sky and Martian horizon, taken by Curiosity, includes Earth as the brightest point of light in the night sky. Earth is a little left of center in the image, and our moon is just below Earth. A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, could easily see Earth and the moon as two distinct, bright "evening stars."

The lower slopes of "Mount Sharp" are visible at the top of this image, taken on July 9, 2013. The turret of tools at the end of the rover's arm, including the rock-sampling drill in the lower left corner, can also be seen.

The rock on the left, called "Wopmay," was discovered by the rover Opportunity, which arrived in 2004 on a different part of Mars. Iron-bearing sulfates indicate that this rock was once in acidic waters. On the right are rocks from "Yellowknife Bay," where rover Curiosity was situated. These rocks are suggestive of water with a neutral pH, which is hospitable to life formation.

Curiosity shows the first sample of powdered rock extracted by the rover's drill. The image was taken by Curiosity's mast camera on February 20, 2013.

The rover drilled this hole, in a rock that's part of a flat outcrop researchers named "John Klein," during its first sample drilling on February 8, 2013.

Curiosity's first set of nighttime photos include this image of Martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet lights. Curiosity used the camera on its robotic arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager, to capture the images on January 22, 2013.

A view of what NASA describes as "veined, flat-lying rock." It was selected as the first drilling site for the Mars rover.

Curiosity used a dust-removal tool for the first time to clean this patch of rock on the Martian surface on January 6, 2013.

The Mars rover Curiosity recorded this view from its left navigation camera after an 83-foot eastward drive on November 18, 2012. The view is toward "Yellowknife Bay" in the "Glenelg" area of Gale Crater.

Three "bite marks" made by the rover's scoop can be seen in the soil on Mars surface on October 15, 2012.

The robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity delivered a sample of Martian soil to the rover's observation tray for the first time on October 16, 2012.

This image shows what the rover team has determined to be a piece of debris from the spacecraft, possibly shed during the landing.

The rover's scoop contains larger soil particles that were too big to filter through a sample-processing sieve. After a full-scoop sample had been vibrated over the sieve, this portion was returned to the scoop for inspection by the rover's mast camera.

Curiosity cut a wheel scuff mark into a wind-formed ripple at the "Rocknest" site on October 3, 2012. This gave researchers a better opportunity to examine the particle-size distribution of the material forming the ripple.

NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for what scientists believe was an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here. The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedrock, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech science team. The rounded shape leads the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. The grains are too large to have been moved by wind.

Curiosity completed its longest drive to date on September 26, 2012. The rover moved about 160 feet east toward the area known as "Glenelg." As of that day the rover had moved about a quarter-mile from its landing site.

This image shows the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with the first rock touched by an instrument on the arm. The photo was taken by the rover's right navigation camera.

Researchers used the Curiosity rover's mast camera to take a photo of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. The image was used to see whether it had been caked in dust during the landing.

Researchers also used the mast camera to examine the Mars Hand Lens Imager on the rover to inspect its dust cover and check that its LED lights were functional. In this image, taken on September 7, 2012, the imager is in the center of the screen with its LED on. The main purpose of Curiosity's imager camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil from the Martian surface.

This is the open inlet where powdered rock and soil samples will be funneled down for analysis. The image is made up of eight photos taken on September 11, 2012, by the imager and is used to check that the instrument is operating correctly.

This is the calibration target for the imager. This image, taken on September 9, 2012, shows that the surface of the calibration target is covered with a layor of dust as a result of the landing. The calibration target includes color references, a metric bar graphic, a penny for scale comparison, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration.

This view of the three left wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on September 9, 2012, the 34th day of Curiosity's work on Mars. In the distance is the lower slope of "Mount Sharp."

The penny in this image is part of a camera calibration target on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The image was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera.

The rover captured this mosiac of a rock feature called 'Snake River" on December 20, 2012.

The left eye of the Mast Camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the rover's arm on September 5, 2012.

Sub-image one of three shows the rover and its tracks after a few short drives. Tracking the tracks will provide information on how the surface changes as dust is deposited and eroded.

Sub-image two shows the parachute and backshell, now in color. The outer band of the parachute has a reddish color.

Sub-image three shows the descent stage crash site, now in color, and several distant spots (blue in enhanced color) downrange that are probably the result of distant secondary impacts that disturbed the surface dust.

An image released August 27, 2012, was taken with Curiosity rover's 100-millimeter mast camera, NASA says. The image shows "Mount Sharp" on the Martian surface. NASA says the rover will go to this area.

The Mars rover Curiosity moved about 15 feet forward and then reversed about 8 feet during its first test drive on August 22, 2012. The rover's tracks can be seen in the right portion of this panorama taken by the rover's navigation camera.

NASA tested the steering on its Mars rover Curiosity on August 21, 2012. Drivers wiggled the wheels in place at the landing site on Mars.

Curiosity moved its robot arm on August 20, 2012, for the first time since it landed on Mars. "It worked just as we planned," said JPL engineer Louise Jandura in a NASA press release. This picture shows the 7-foot-long arm holding a camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and other tools. The arm will undergo weeks of tests before it starts digging.

With the addition of four high-resolution Navigation Camera, or Navcam, images, taken on August 18, 2012. Curiosity's 360-degree landing-site panorama now includes the highest point on "Mount Sharp" visible from the rover. Mount Sharp's peak is obscured from the rover's landing site by this highest visible point.

This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The composite incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with insets taken by the camera in ChemCam. The circular insert highlights the rock before the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock.

An updated self-portrait of the Mars rover Curiosity, showing more of the rover's deck. This image is a mosiac compiled from images taken from the navigation camera. The wall of "Gale Crater," the rover's landing site, can be seen at the top of the image.

This image shows what will be the rover's first target with it's chemistry and camera (ChemCam) instrument. The ChemCam will fire a laser at the rock, indicated by the black circle. The laser will cause the rock to emit plasma, a glowing, ionized gas. The rover will then analyze the plasma to determine the chemical composition of the rock.

This image, with a portion of the rover in the corner, shows the wall of "Gale Crater" running across the horizon at the top of the image.

This image, taken from the rover's mast camera, looks south of the landing site toward "Mount Sharp."

In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter "Gale Crater" from the outside here.

In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter "Gale Crater" from the outside here.

Two blast marks from the descent stage's rockets can be seen in the center of this image. Also seen is Curiosity's left side. This picture is a mosaic of images taken by the rover's navigation cameras.

This color full-resolution image showing the heat shield of NASA's Curiosity rover was obtained during descent to the surface of Mars on August 13, 2012. The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument known as MARDI and shows the 15-foot diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet from the spacecraft.

This first image taken by the Navigation cameras on Curiosity shows the rover's shadow on the surface of Mars.

This image comparison shows a view through a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover before and after the clear dust cover was removed. Both images were taken by a camera at the front of the rover. "Mount Sharp," the mission's ultimate destination, looms ahead.

The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing.

This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on the first day after landing.

This is one of the first pictures taken by Curiosity after it landed. It shows the rover's shadow on the Martian soil.

This image shows Curiosity's main science target, "Mount Sharp." The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground. The dark bands in the distances are dunes.

NASA's Curiosity rover was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on November 26, 2011. NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover, touched down on the planet on August 6, 2012.

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

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Finding clues beneath the surface

We’ve been exploring the surface of Mars in hopes of understanding the Red Planet since NASA’s Viking mission in the 1970s. The Viking Project was the first US mission to safely land spacecraft on the Martian surface, as well as send back images.

And although hopes were high that the two landers and their instruments would detect signs of life or organic compounds in samples taken from the surface, that didn’t happen.

Tweet by @MarsCuriosity "I'm back! Did you miss me? This selfie is part of a fresh batch of images, direct from #Mars. Check out all my raw images at https://go.nasa.gov/2n5oyKo "

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Decades later, Viking helped inspire the instruments on today’s Martian rovers. And Curiosity dug a little deeper beneath the surface, which is blasted with radiation, to see what stories the soil had to tell.

Curiosity sampled sites by drilling five centimeters below the surface in the Gale crater, which is where the rover landed in 2012. The 96-mile crater, named for Australian astronomer Walter F. Gale, was most likely formed by meteor impact between 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago. It likely held a lake, and now includes a mountain.

The rover was able to heat the samples to between 932 and 1508 degrees Fahrenheit and study the organic molecules released through gas analysis. The organic molecules and volatiles, comparable to samples of sedimentary rock rich in organics on Earth, included thiopene, methylthiophenes methanethiol and dimethylsulfide.

They don’t exactly roll off the tongue, but researchers believe that these are fragments of larger molecules that were present on Mars billions of years ago. And the high amount of sulfur in the samples is most likely how they’ve lasted so long, the researchers said. Drilling beneath the surface, rather than sampling what was on top like Viking did, also helped.

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Potential contaminants were analyzed and accounted for, so the results are the most conclusive yet.

“The Martian surface is exposed to radiation from space,” said Jen Eigenbrode, a study author and research scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center. “Both radiation and harsh chemicals break down organic matter. Finding ancient organic molecules in the top 5 centimeters of rock that was deposited when Mars may have been habitable bodes well for us to learn the story of organic molecules on Mars with future missions that will drill deeper.”

Methane in the air

Over five years, Curiosity has used its Tunable Laser Spectrometer to measure methane in the atmosphere at the Gale crater. Before, researchers couldn’t understand why the little bit of methane detected in the Martian atmosphere varied. With five years of data from a single location, they now have answers.

There is a seasonal variation to the methane that repeats, which means the methane is being released from the Martian surface or from reservoirs beneath the surface. The methane could even be trapped in water-based crystals beneath the surface.

Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, and it could have supported a climate that sustained lakes on Mars. That could even be happening beneath the surface now, the researchers said. The release of methane is an active process on Mars, which could suggest new things about what’s unfolding on the Red Planet.

The InSight Lander This artist's concept shows the InSight lander, its sensors, cameras and instruments. InSight is will take the first-ever-in-depth look at Mars' "inner space." InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. Its three instruments are a seismometer, a heat flow probe, and a radio science experiment. These instruments will shed light on how warm and geologically active Mars still is, study its reflexes as it whips about in its orbit around the sun, and provide essential clues on the evolution of the rocky planets of our solar system. So while InSight is a Mars mission, it's also more than a Mars mission. InSight will launch between May 5 through June 8, 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the InSight Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, built the spacecraft. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. For more information about the mission, go to: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight.

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Detecting this organic molecule in the atmosphere, combined with the finding of organic compounds in the soil, has strong implications about potential life on Mars in its past.

The Gale Crater was probably habitable 3.5 billion years ago, based on what Curiosity has shown us. Then, the conditions would have been comparable to Earth. This is also when life was evolving on our own planet.

Knowing that these molecules and compounds were present, then, gives new strength to the idea that life originated or existed on Mars and that more work by the Martian rovers can uncover the past.

NASA’s InSight Lander, launched on May 5, will land on Mars on November 26. Its two-year mission will explore Mars to see if it’s “geologically alive,” or active below the surface. For example, scientists want to know if it has “Mars quakes.” And the Mars 2020 rover, which is expected to launch July 2020, may be able to assist with one day retrieving soil samples from Mars.

“Are there signs of life on Mars?” asked Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters. “We don’t know, but these results tell us we are on the right track.”