The discovery of the largest organic compounds ever observed on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover has sparked intriguing speculation about whether life first appeared on the red planet billions of years ago.

Notably, a 3.7-billion-year-old rock sample from Yellowknife Bay, an old Martian lakebed that once held all the elements required for life in the planet's warmer, wetter past, contained the compounds.

Curiosity Rover's Mission Overview

During rover tests, long-chain alkanes—organic compounds believed to be byproducts of fatty acids—were discovered in the rock. Although the compounds can be produced through inert chemical reactions, they are essential components of the cell membranes found in all living things on Earth.

The material, according to one expert, was the best chance scientists had ever had to find evidence of life on Mars. However, the researchers do not claim to have discovered a biosignature, or a “smoking gun” that would prove life was once

there.

Moreover, Dr. Caroline Freissinet, an analytical chemist at the Atmospheres and Space Observations Laboratory, suggests that long-chain fatty acids on Mars could have originated from membrane degradation of cells present 3.7 billion years ago, based on a hypothesis.

The Curiosity rover, launched in 2012, has discovered organics in ancient mudstone, but only in short carbon-chain molecules. In a recent study, researchers Freissinet and colleagues used a new procedure to test more samples from the mudstone, detecting larger organics such as decane, undecane, and dodecane.

Furthermore, scientists found that the Martian rock sample Cumberland most likely contained fatty acids, or carboxylic acids, which, when heated, changed into alkanes. According to a National Academy of Sciences study, these acids are thought to be terrestrial, universal products of biochemistry, and possibly Martian.

Revealing Potential Life Signs

The study of Martian organics revealed that fatty acids, which are produced by Earth's organisms, tend to have more even carbon atom numbers due to enzymes adding two carbon atoms at a time. This trend was also observed in Martian organics, with the middle one having 12 carbons being more abundant. Although this trend is not real, it remains intriguing.

In addition, the study indicates that Martian rock can retain organic life signatures for billions of years, indicating that if life had emerged on the planet, its remnants might still be present.

Scientists are analysing a second sample of rock from Curiosity, hoping to find larger organics and more fatty acids with even carbon numbers, but this is still not conclusive.

At Last, John Eiler, a geology and geochemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology, suggests that analysing carbon and hydrogen isotopes in organics could reveal their origins. However, these tests require equipment found in few Earth labs, and there is no plausible path to making such measurements using an in-situ instrument on Mars.

“The findings reported in this paper present the best chance we have seen for identifying the remains of life on Mars,” according to Eiler. “But sealing the deal absolutely requires return of such samples to Earth.”

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