NASA’s Perseverance Rover Digs Up Organic Molecules on Mars

After trundling around the Jezero crater for 550 Martian days, NASA’s Perseverance rover has amassed nearly half its planned rock collection—including some containing organic molecules, a possible sign that life could have thrived there more than 3 billion years ago. These are compounds that contain carbon, and often hydrogen or oxygen, which are likely crucial to life forming.

“We have discovered rocks that were deposited in a potentially habitable environment in that lake, and we have been seeking potential biosignatures,” which may have been produced by life, said Ken Farley, the Perseverance project scientist at Caltech, speaking today at a press conference at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

→ Continue reading at Wired - Science

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

GM pauses sales of Chevy Blazer EV over software issues | CNN Business

New York CNN  —  GM has paused sales of its brand new Chevy Blazer EVs after some customers reported...

Crypto’s 2023 was marred by fraud and scandal. It was its best year ever | CNN Business

New York CNN  —  Crypto’s 14th year in existence was one marred by scandal, bankruptcy, fraud and regulatory squabbling....

The Tantalizing Mystery of the Solar System’s Hidden Oceans

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.For most of humankind’s existence, Earth was the only known ocean-draped world, seemingly unlike any...