Put this day on your agenda: November 21, 2012. As the principal investigator of the Curiosity mission John Grotzinger explained in a radio interview, the exploration robot has discovered “a piece of information that will be in the history books” to which he added “The data are … they really promise a lot,” he pointed out, biting his tongue to avoid giving more data than is strictly necessary. In fact, it has been precisely this secrecy that has led us to think: has it found life on Mars? Or maybe some evidence that life has existed in the past? Beyond Grotzinger’s statements, the official account of the Curiosity mission, @MarsCuriosity tried to calm the masses by explaining in a tweet: “What have I found on Mars? Rumors spread rapidly on the web. My team considers the mission complete. “something worthy of the history books.”
The truth is that all the unknowns are in the air and NASA, after Grotzinger’s announcement, has given silence for an answer. According to the same researcher, the results are still being studied and a conference is expected to take place on December 3 (probably within the framework of the Annual Conference of the American Geophysical Union ) in which the data will be released.
What is known is that behind a possible discovery that would provide a lot of information about the past, present and future of Mars, such as the discovery of methane, is one of the most famous instruments carried by Curiosity, the SAM . This tool (acronym for Sample Analysis at Mars) works as a spectrophotometer, as a chromatograph, as a radiation detector, etc. that is, it manages to analyze, among other things, molecules related to the existence of life such as oxygen, carbon, and methane. or nitrogen.
In any case, it seems that the mystery will remain latent until the beginning of December. Have you found any evidence that life existed on Mars in the past?
