NASA’S Perseverance rover has uncovered organic molecules on the surface of Mars.
The findings, recently presented in the journal Nature, provide fresh clues that suggest life may have once existed on Mars.
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Perseverance made the discovery while exploring Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide impact basin located north of Mars’ equator.
While in the crater, the rover gathered several rock samples, some of which contained signatures of organic molecules.
Also known as biosignatures, organic molecules are chemical compounds normally found in living systems.
These can consist of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, among others.
“They are an exciting clue for astrobiologists since they are often thought of as building blocks of life,” Joseph Razzell Hollis, a postdoctoral fellow at London’s Natural History Museum and an author of the paper, told Newsweek.
Still, the study researchers – who hail from the California Institute of Technology – noted that the existence of biosignatures alone does not definitively indicate life existed on Mars.
“Importantly, [organic molecules] can be created by processes not related to life as we know it, and so organic molecules are not evidence of life on their own without sufficient extra evidence that cannot be explained by nonbiological—or abiotic—processes,” Razzell Hollis said.
For example, the organic molecule methane can be released by many non-biological sources.
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This includes the eruption of volcanos, hydrothermal vents, and comet or asteroid impacts.
Despite this, Razzell Hollis noted that the discovery of the compounds is still exciting “because they highlight the variety of organics that may have survived on Mars even after billions of years of degradation.”
Moreover, the findings help astrobiologists get more insight into Mars’ complex past and its future.
“While we still can’t say for sure whether Mars could have been inhabitable back then, astrobiologists believe that the presence of varied organics is incredibly important for the potential for a planet or environment to host life,” Razzell Hollis told the Daily Mail.
This is not the first time Perseverance has detected organic compounds on Mars.
Just last year, the rover detected signs of biosignatures around Mars’ Wildcat Ridge area using its SHERLOC (or Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) system.
