For the first time in history , a team from NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission has confirmed that there are unequivocally organic compounds in the soil of the planet Mars. This discovery and all its details will be published in January 2015 in the Journal of Geophysical Researh .
The latest revelation from the MSL was that NASA’s Curiosity rover had detected that methane levels in the Martian atmosphere , near Gale Crater, change over time , suggesting that these emissions are coming from a nearby source and unknown. Is there a living being behind these fluctuations in the concentrations of this gas that on Earth is synonymous with biological activity? The truth is that scientists are puzzled when they do not know the origin of this methane, but it could be as much about microbes from the digestive system of some living being or a simple geological activity.
Regarding the organic compounds detected by the Curiosity rover in a rock analyzed using the SAM (Sanple Analysis at Mars) instrument, they are, specifically, chlorobenzene and other molecules with carbon and chlorine , such as dichloroalkanes, but it is unknown, at the moment, if its origin is volcanic, hydrothermal, atmospheric, biological, or it may have reached the red planet through meteorites, comets or particles of cosmic dust.
The SAM instrument has carried out around 20 measurements on three different samples with the same result and, be that as it may, this finding represents a great step in the assessment of the habitability potential – past or present – of the Martian planet’s surface , which is it is but one of the main objectives of the mission.
