The building blocks of life were discovered in 10 different rock samples on Mars

NASA’s Endurance rover has been able to find the building blocks of life in 10 rock samples. Do these organic compounds prove the existence of life in the past of Mars?

Mars has always been a hot topic for the life debate. Even before the spacecraft was sent to the Red Planet and even in the early years of the probe’s landing, some claimed that advanced life existed on Mars. Although the published images denied this issue. Later, it was believed that Mars may have hosted life in the distant past. However, there is a difference of opinion about the advanced level of possible living organisms in the past of Mars.

Discovery of the building blocks of life by NASA’s Endurance Mars Rover

During all this time, NASA continued to send the Mars rover and examine all possible evidence in order to provide a scientific and definitive answer. Recently, NASA’s Endurance rover was able to find a set of organic molecules in a Martian crater. Organic compounds are molecules that are composed of carbon and often contain other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur.

Previously, scientists were able to find several different types of organic compounds originating from Mars in different locations. Some of them were present in meteorites that landed on Earth and were separated from the mother planet as a result of space collisions. Others were also discovered in the Gale Crater of Mars. NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring this crater since 2012.

The existence of these things on Mars is important since these organic compounds are known as the building blocks of life. This has also attracted the attention of astrobiologists. Of course, the problem is that the mentioned organic compounds can be created as a result of other activities and do not necessarily mean the existence of life in the past of Mars.

Jezero Crater

If a normal person comes across the building blocks of life on Mars, they will immediately excitedly declare that life once existed on the Red Planet. But such a thing is not possible for scientists and they don’t want to question their entire professional background with a claim. For this reason, planetary scientists are currently investigating all the reasons for the formation of these organic molecules. In other words, the existence of life is their last option.

Sunanda Sharma, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, and her colleagues analyzed data from the Endurance rover. It was in the middle of winter last year that the NASA probe entered the Jezero crater. This crater was the site of an ancient lake and it was believed to have a high capacity to host life. Also, in the bed of the lake there were clay and other minerals that could protect the building blocks of life.

Of course, scientists have focused more on the data received from NASA’s SHERLOC scientific instrument. Sherlock is the first human instrument on Mars that can map and evaluate organic molecules in high detail. Building blocks of new life have also been discovered in two Martian rock samples named Máaz and Séítah.

When Sherlock’s ultraviolet light shines on organic compounds, they glow like substances placed under a black light. Sherlock can then identify the molecules by examining the received wavelengths. In general, NASA’s Mars rover created 10 small dots in the indicated rocks and signs of organic molecules were found in all of them. These signs cover the time period between 2.3 billion and 2.6 billion years ago.

Thus, it can be said that the building blocks of life have existed for a very long time in more than one place on the surface of Mars. Interestingly, scientists have been able to find different models of organic compounds in these rock samples. This shows that the mentioned compounds are the result of different minerals and formation processes. Further investigation also revealed that many of them were formed in connection with water.

Of course, the data received from the Endurance rover also faces limitations. For example, scientists cannot accurately identify organic molecules, and for this, samples must be returned to Earth. Despite this, the presence of compounds with different formation processes in just one Martian crater has surprised scientists.

As you can see, scientists are reporting small and limited steps to identify the building blocks of life on Mars, which is located near Earth. But on the other hand, not long ago, we saw the claim of one of the representatives of the American Congress, who informed about the movement of aliens to the earth. He had announced that our current physics and knowledge is insignificant compared to them and that we are only attractive to aliens as a laboratory sample.

Which one do you believe in? NASA’s small and sure steps or the extraterrestrial and attractive claims of some people?