Space & Astronomy

Has Curiosity found fatty acid on Mars ?

By T.K. Randall
March 21, 2015

Image: Curiosity Rover
Credit: (PD) NASA/JPL-Caltech via Wikimedia Commons Of all the goals that Curiosity is hoping to achieve on Mars, determining whether its landing site, Gale Crater, was ever able to support the development of microbial life, either today or in the planet's past, is undoubtedly its most important.

So far indications have been tantalizingly positive that something biological may have been happening on Mars. Past experiments have picked up signs of chlorobenzene in Martian rocks while evidence of methane has been detected in the atmosphere.Now the team behind the Curiosity rover has found further indications of possible organic chemistry on Mars in the form of fatty acids picked up by the rover's sample analysis instrument.

NASA scientist Dr Daniel Glavin described the find as "provocative" but indicated that it is not yet clear whether these discoveries are biological or non-biological in nature.

It may be a long time yet before the mystery of life on Mars can ever be satisfactorily answered.

Source: BBC News

Tags: Mars, Organic, Life