Humankind has come one step closer to finding proof of life on Mars.
Nasa detected organic molecules on Mars, including chemicals widely considered constructing blocks for the origin of life on Earth.
The space agency’s rover Curiosity has been scouring Mars ever because it landed on the Red Planet in 2012.
It was within the Gale crater – where scientists consider conditions for supporting ancient life were favourable – that the robot discovered five latest molecules.
The chemicals within the clay-rich sandstone are much like the raw material that helped spur the event of life on Earth.
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Nevertheless, the evaluation performed by Curiosity cannot establish whether the organic compounds are linked to ancient life on Mars or non-biological processes, resembling meteorites.
The experiment lead, Prof Amy Williams, an astrogeologist on the University of Florida, said: ‘We expect we’re organic matter that’s been preserved on Mars for 3.5bn years.
‘Is it life? We will’t tell, based on this information.
The 21 molecules discovered in total have survived hostile conditions on Earth’s neighbour planet.
Temperatures drop below -100C at night and the planet is blasted by radiation from the sun.
Williams said: ‘For a very long time, we thought that each one organic matter was going to be seriously degraded by that harsh radiation environment. It’s really exciting to see [that] large complex material can survive within the subsurface environment.’
The rover’s discoveries were confirmed with other instruments aboard the robot.
Its evaluation recently detected compounds, including carbon which can be linked to life.
The experiment also hinted on the presence of one other compound that has a structure much like the early types of DNA.
‘There are several steps between what we found and DNA,” Williams said. ‘It is unquestionably a constructing block to how DNA is made now. However it is actually just the bricks, not the home. You may generate these molecules geologically.’
The scientists consider the observations from Curiosity could tie into discoveries from Nasa’s other on-duty Mars rover, Perseverance.
The European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2028, will drill to a depth of two metres and find a way to perform more sophisticated tests on the compounds it finds.
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