NASA аппарат обнаружил крупнейшие органические молекулы на Марсе

NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered the largest organic molecules ever found on the "Red Planet." This is reported in a Science Alert article, reports UNN.

Details

It is noted that the discovery is one of the most important findings in the search for evidence of past life on Mars. These molecules may actually be fragments of fatty acids that are found, for example, in the membranes surrounding biological cells.

Scientists believe that if life ever arose on Mars, it was likely microbial in nature.

The organic molecules found by Curiosity consist of carbon atoms linked in long chains, with other elements linked to them, such as hydrogen and oxygen.

They come from a 3.7 billion-year-old Cumberland rock found by the rover on the likely dried-up lake bed in Gale Crater on Mars.

In fact, scientists were looking for evidence of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins and, therefore, key components of life as we know it. But this unexpected find is almost as exciting

This is already the second unique finding in the context of the search for life on Mars in the last month. In March of this year, scientists presented evidence of features of another rock taken by the Perseverance rover. These features, called "leopard spots" and "poppy seeds," may have been created by the action of microbial life in the distant past.

"The Mars Sample Return mission, which is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, gives hope that rock samples collected and stored by Perseverance can be delivered to Earth for study in laboratories," the publication summarizes.

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