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Mark Salvatore<\/strong> has been studying Mars\u2019 surface for years, including through his work with the Curiosity rover. He talked to NAU News<\/em> about NASA\u2019s announcement<\/a> Thursday that showed evidence of organic material and methane on Mars\u2014both of which could be indicative of life on the Red Planet.<\/p>\n Salvatore is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northern Arizona University. His research focuses on the formation and evolution of planetary surfaces using a field, lab and remote sensing techniques. Much of his field research takes place in Antarctica, which is similarly cold and dry. Salvatore also has a grant from NASA to support his work in NAU\u2019s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover, which allows him to collaborate with scientists, engineers and NASA\u2019s rover operators to guide the Curiosity around Mars.<\/p>\n The organic molecules were discovered using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which is a complex wet chemistry laboratory onboard the rover that ingests fine-grained powders generated during drilling, heats them up to several hundreds of degrees Celsius, then measures the release of different molecules at these high temperatures.\u00a0Different molecules will volatilize at different temperatures, which is how we can be confident that organic molecules are the source of these specific signatures.<\/p>\n Organic molecules are the building blocks for life as we know it.\u00a0The fact that we have been able to identify many different types of organic molecules, within several different geologic units, and relatively close to the surface (not too far from the destructive radiation environment that the surface is exposed to), suggests that organic molecules are probably a common chemical constituent on Mars.\u00a0While this obviously doesn\u2019t mean that these molecules formed through biological processes (organic molecules are able to form through non-biological processes as well), this discovery confirms the fact that Mars was once a habitable place, and expands our knowledge of what sorts of molecules are present and what we should look for in the future.<\/p>\n It suggests that the chemical conditions necessary for life to survive were likely present on Mars in the past.\u00a0Organic molecules break down relatively easy in harsh environmental conditions, so the fact that they are preserved in these sedimentary rocks suggests that their formation (and any subsequent geologic modification) was under conditions that were, by all terrestrial accounts, habitable. Should life exist on Mars today, there is good reason to believe it wouldn\u2019t be anywhere near the surface because of the cold and dry conditions, as well as the harsh radiation environment.\u00a0Instead, if life were to exist on Mars today, it likely took shelter deep in the subsurface or in some other equally protected environment.<\/p>\n These are the sorts of discoveries that the SAM instrument was designed to make, so I\u2019m very happy the rover has remained healthy and productive and provided the time, samples and data necessary to make this discovery!\u00a0We\u2019re definitely moving in the right direction when it comes to furthering our understanding of the ancient conditions that were present on Mars.\u00a0We\u2019ve also finally been able to collect drill samples and measure them onboard the rover again<\/a>, so I\u2019d say that we\u2019re all just excited to get back \u201con the road\u201d and make more measurements to see if we can continue our record of discovering cooler and cooler things!<\/p>\nHow did the rover find this data?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What does it add to what we know about Mars and the universe generally?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What does it tell us about the possibility of life on Mars?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Will this change what you\u2019re looking for with Curiosity or how you\u2019re looking for it?<\/strong><\/h3>\n