Organic matter found on Mars

The Guardian reports that Nasa’s veteran Curiosity rover has found complex organic matter buried and preserved in ancient sediments that formed a vast lake bed on Mars more than 3bn years ago.

A new study published in Science on Thursday presents the first conclusive evidence for large organic molecules on the surface of Mars, a pursuit that began with NASA’s Viking landers in the 1970s. Earlier tests may have hinted at organics, but the presence of chlorine in martian dirt complicated those interpretations.

The discovery is the most compelling evidence yet that long before the planet became the parched world it is today. Martian lakes were a rich soup of carbon-based compounds that are necessary for life, at least as we know it.

Nasa’s Curiosity rover has found organic matter preserved on Mars, in a discovery that could suggest it was once home to life.

The Independent says that the new announcement is actually the result of two new studies reveal vast new detail about how methane exists on the planet, as well as the unexpected organic molecules that are preserved in its soil.

Dispatch based on reports on National Geographic, The Science, The Guardian and The Independent.