Since 2012, plow Curiosity conducts research on the surface of Mars with the aim of better limiting Red Planet climate evolution and the presence of water fluid in its past, but also to determine whether Mars is capable of sustaining life.
If we know it now many lakes and rivers shaping the landscape of Mars and him climate is a favorable day for life, no direct biological traces have yet been found. No problem, scientists continue to search, especially by looking at the presence of the chemical elements of the bricks needed toTake it out life.
The amount of organic carbon that is proportional to a given area
In 2014, curiosity Therefore, a series of experiments were carried out to measure the fraction carbon total organic matter found in Martian rocks. After eight years of data analysis, the results are finally available in the journal PNAS and revealed that Martian rocks are relatively rich in organic carbon, which is one of the key components for triggering chemical reactions. prebiotics and maybe construction of biological molecules.
It’s been a long time since scientists found traces of organic carbon in red planet. But evaluating the available quantity is an important parameter that determines the developmental potential of life. And the results are quite surprising, because they show that Martian rocks contain a significant fraction of organic carbon, comparable to a given area. The values are admittedly very similar to harsh environments depleted of organic carbon (for warehouse worldly), as Atacama Desert, but these are encouraging results as far as Mars is concerned. Because it shows that carbon is available in sufficient quantities for construction (hypothetical) organic moleculeswhich is the basis of all known forms of life today.
Water, carbon, energy sources… all the ingredients for living together
Total organic carbon is defined as the number of carbon atoms bonded in an organic molecule (usually composed of hydrogen atoms,oxygen and D ‘nitrogen). If most of the organic carbon on earth has a biological origin, it can have a non-biological origin, especially meteorite, volcanic activity, or certain chemical reactions on the planet’s surface. The presence of organic carbon on Mars in no way proves that life ever evolved on this planet.
With liquid water, the presence of significant amounts of organic carbon, on the other hand, is a new element indicating that the basic ingredients necessary for life existed on Mars several billion years ago. Gale Crater where Curiosity evolved quite a favorable place for the appearance of lifebecause the environment besides water and carbon has another important element: sourcesenergylow acidity, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur.
Therefore, Curiosity may be in the right place to find the first traces of so coveted Martian life. However, if it does exist, it may be more difficult to access it than we think.
Review search strategies for organic molecules such as amino acids
New experiment performed by NASA indeed suggest that the rover would have to drill to a depth of two meters below the Martian surface to have a chance of finding organic molecules. It’s mainly about searchingAmino acidswhich may or may not be of biological origin, but which in all cases serve as building blocks for construction: protein. It Of course amino acids are brittle and easily broken down by cosmic rays reach the thin surface of Mars atmosphere does not provide effective protection. Currently, the rover is drilling to a depth of five centimeters. Scientists estimate that at this depth, amino acids were destroyed in just 20 million years. Knowing that the potential for life on Mars could have evolved several billion years ago, it therefore seems completely useless to investigate this very superficial level.
These results, published in Astrobiologi, indicating the need to implement a new search strategy for the raiders currently operating, which are unfortunately not equipped to drill to the required depth. One solution is to find shoots recently exposed the interior of the ground beneath, such as in small impact craters less than 10 million years old or material ejected from these craters.
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