Life on Earth is made from cells.
Cells are surrounded by membranes, and cell membranes
contain large organic molecules called fatty acids.
Could these building blocks of life also exist on Mars?
A new finding by NASA's Curiosity rover has scientists speculating.
In 2013, Curiosity collected samples from a mudstone called “Cumberland,”
leading to the discovery of small organic molecules like methane,
chlorinated hydrocarbons, and thiophene.
Now, for the first time, scientists have identified
long-chain hydrocarbons within the Cumberland samples,
the largest organic molecules yet discovered on Mars.
Curiosity's onboard chemistry lab, called SAM for short, detected the hydrocarbons
by using a new dual-heating process that was developed after the rover landed.
Scientists hypothesize that the long-chain hydrocarbons
may be byproducts of fatty acids disintegrated during heating by SAM.
If even longer hydrocarbon chains are present
within the samples, SAM is not optimized to detect them.
Instead, scientists hope to bring material from Mars
to laboratories on Earth for more detailed analysis.
2,300 miles away from Curiosity, at the site of an ancient lake
in Jezero Crater, NASA's Perseverance rover
is already caching tantalizing samples for this purpose.
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