NASA detects organic matter on Mars

Washington, Dec 17: In a promising find, the NASA Curiosity rover has detected organic molecules - the building blocks of all known forms of terrestrial life - on Mars. The organic molecules, found by the team responsible for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on Curiosity, were in a drilled sample of the Sheepbed mudstone in Gale crater - the rover's landing site - the US space agency said in a statement. Organic molecules consist of a wide variety of molecules made primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. However, organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that do not involve life. The surface of Mars is currently inhospitable to life as we know it, but there is evidence that the Red Planet once had a climate that could have supported life billions of years ago. "We think life began on Earth around 3.8 billion years ago and our result shows that places on Mars had the same conditions at that time -- liquid water, a warm environment and organic matter," said Caroline Freissinet of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US. The organic molecules found by the team also have chlorine atoms and include chlorobenzene and several dichloroalkanes, such as dichloroethane.