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Subscribe to RSSAccording to NASA, powder from a rock found on Mars indicates the Red Planet may have been able to support microbes billions of years ago. NBC's Katie Wall reports.
Powder drilled out of a rock on Mars contains the best evidence yet that the Red Planet could have supported living microbes billions of years ago, the team behind NASA's Curiosity rover said Tuesday.
"I think this is probably the only definitively habitable environment that we have described and recorded," said David Blake, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center who is the principal investigator for Curiosity's CheMin lab.
The findings are in line with what the scientists hoped to find when they sent the 1-ton, six-wheeled laboratory to Mars' Gale Crater. "It wasn't serendipity that got us here. It was the result of planning," Caltech's John Grotzinger, the $2.5 billion mission's project scientist, told reporters at NASA Headquarters in Washington on Tuesday.
Serendipity did, however, play a part in being able to find the evidence so soon, he said. Curiosity's handlers had planned to have the rover head for a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain in the middle of the crater. But when the rover landed, the science team decided to send Curiosity on a detour to a geologically interesting area in the opposite direction, nicknamed Yellowknife Bay. Preliminary readings showed that the area had been a riverbed or lake bed in ancient times.
Last month, the rover finally got a chance to drill into a Martian rock that was named John Klein, after a member of the mission team who died in 2011. Curiosity fed tablespoons of the ground-up gray powder into its two onboard chemical labs: CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) and SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars). The results were announced at Tuesday's news briefing.
Scientists said the powder contained the elemental ingredients of life — including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon. More significantly, they found that clay minerals made up at least 20 percent of the sample. On Earth, these clays are produced when relatively fresh water reacts with igneous minerals such as olivine. The scientists also found calcium sulfate, which suggested that the water had a neutral or mildly alkaline balance.
Earlier NASA missions had found evidence that salty, acidic water was once present on Mars, but that extreme environment would have been challenging for today's Earth-type organisms. Curiosity's chemical analysis produced a different result: The water that was available during the formation of the rock at Yellowknife Bay, billions of years ago, could have supported the kind of life commonly found on Earth.
"We have found a habitable environment which is so benign and supportive of life that probably if this water was around, and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it," Grotzinger said.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Ames
A side-by-side comparison shows the X-ray diffraction patterns of two samples collected by Curiosity. The left side shows data from a sample collected from a drift of windblown dust, and the right side shows data from the powder drilled out of the John Klein rock. The John Klein readings show an abundance of phyllosilicate, a class of clay minerals called smectites that form by the action of relatively pure and neutral pH water on minerals.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / MSSS
The left image shows Wopmay rock in Endurance Crater, as studied by NASA's Opportunity rover. The right image shows Sheepbed in Yellowknife Bay, as studied by Curiosity. Scientists say both rocks were formed in the presence of water, but the water at Wopnay was highly acidic and salty, while the water at Sheepbed had a more neutral pH and lower salinity.
The scientists said they were surprised to find a mixture of oxidized and non-oxidized chemicals, allowing for the type of chemistry that earthly microbes use to generate the energy they need for survival. This partial oxidation was first hinted at when the drill cuttings were revealed to be gray rather than red.
"The range of chemical ingredients we have identified in the sample is impressive, and it suggests pairings such as sulfates and sulfides that indicate a possible chemical energy source for microorganisms," SAM principal investigator Paul Mahaffy said in a NASA news release.
NASA said another drilled sample would be used to help confirm the chemical findings for several of the trace gases that were analyzed by the SAM instrument.
The current plan calls for Curiosity to conduct experiments in the Yellowknife Bay for weeks or months longer, and then begin a roughly 6-mile (10-kilometer) drive to the big mountain, known as Mount Sharp or Aeolis Mons. Scientists will look for further evidence of ancient organic chemistry hidden in the mountain's many layers of rock.
The primary aim of Curiosity's two-year primary mission is to find evidence of past habitability — in particular, organic carbon compounds that could have played a role in the chemistry of life billions of years ago. Grotzinger said Curiosity's scientists will focus on the systematic search for organic carbon now that they had "the issue of habitability in the bag."
NASA intends to follow up on Curiosity's findings with future Mars missions, including the $500 million MAVEN orbiter (due for launch this year), the $425 million InSight drill-equipped lander (set for 2016 launch) and another Curiosity-like rover that's scheduled to be sent out in 2020.
Trace the Curiosity rover's journey to Mars and see the pictures that the six-wheeled robot has sent back from the Red Planet.
More about Mars:
- Organics found, but are they from Mars?
- Radar reveals traces of huge Martian flood
- Cosmic Log archive on Mars
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
This story was originally published on Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:48 PM EDT
Leave a Comment:
can we send it toDC and look for life there
Hopefully they won't dig up "The Thing" or the Creature of the Black Lagoon who'll figure out where this rover came from and...
Intelligent life need not be carbon based, oxygen breathing and possessed of a penis or uterus and ovaries. It could very well be ammonia breathing and sturdy enough to live in 1000 or more of our gravities. Or it could be otherwise, sorta like us. Read: "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein.
I have no doubt that we will someday colonize the moon and Mars. Maybe, first with a penal colony or more than one-US, China, Russia, etc. and not to forget them, the worm that farted: No. Korea. The penal colonies will war with each other, bust out and form non-penal colonies who will treat with "Earth" and establish it's own economy. Sadly. or maybe gladly, I'm old and probably will not live to see andy of it.
Some scientists believe that a Silicon based like form (Star Trek "Devil in the Dark") is possible because of its close proximity to carbon on the periodic table of elements.
I disagree. You need the complexity and the bond energies of C to make something complex enough to form life.
People if they were people, probably blew them selves up, just like theis planet is going to do, if dumb asses don't knock it off.
The should definitely have the rover record data and video of the asteroid impact next year, if it hits.
This would be very interesting.
I meant comet, sorry. And it will be a big one. Estimated at anywhere between 9 and 30 miles in diameter.
I marvel at people that think the space program is a waste of money. Do you think they load the rocket with cash and then shoot it into space as a 'payment'? The money is spent here, paying salaries, paying for research, providing real jobs for real people. Of course, they are highly educated and/or well-trained people. That may provide the real reason 'haters hate'; they resent the fact that people who know things they don't know are able to do things they can't do. To the point: if you don't like it, don't read it, and if you want to change it, write your like-minded elected officials and stop sucking internet bandwidth with ignorant tripe.
man in his present form is millions of years old and has gone through many cycles of high technical civilizations and extended periods of savagery ...caused by manmade disasters or natural disasters..planet wide.Each time mankind recovers he developes different technologies from those before...now the apelike skeletons that many archeologists are finding are most like from similar creatures like neanderthal or bigfoot..sometimes they find both modern day man and neanderthal skeletons close by each other...and that has some archeologists confused...because of evolutionary theories..they don't quite fit .This will explain how mankind has developed so rapidly in knowledge from just a mere 5000 years ago...because mankind is really millions of year old and is just RE COVERING from the last worldwide disaster.HE isn't evolving rapidly...he is just recovering and redeveloping.
Some are saying they are finding metal pieces imbedded in 300,000 or more year old coal layers that have shapes that cannot be naturally made. What about the tectonic plates moving into the Marianis Trench destroying all signs of life and recycling everything. I would think that H sapien and H neandertalensis may have been the same species, just different locations producing differences in looks such as Chinese to European today. Thus H neandertalensis didn't die out, their differences in looks were bred out of them.
Is there a difference between organic carbon and non-organic carbon? Organic chemistry is the study of carbon interaction. Unless they're talking about Dissolved Organic Carbon which is a broad classification for organic molecules of varied origin and composition within aquatic systems
If the truth is being told, then I think it is unique and amazing. It is Sad, that We All face the host of problems and chaos here on this rock we call Earth. Mankind, takes on a whole new meaning when, We realize, that more then likely, there is and has been, far superior beings, then We could ever fathom in existence. They could prove to be exquisite, or deadly. Not much differenet, then We are, towards each other, here on fragile earth.
What makes you think that there are "far superior beings" out there, whether there is life or not? That's no more likely than finding a race of savage, warlike beasts just as self-destructive as humans or any other animal on Earth. Nature creates those emotional imperatives for a reason, you know, and there's no reason to think that life elsewhere would be any different (though it might).
SF. "I think, therefore I am!" You may have overlooked the words: exquisite or deadly! What makes Me think in a certain way, should have no bearings on how You think . I respect all, who think different from me. it would be a damn boreing world if we all thought alike. Well got to run, the mothership just landed. "Live Long and Prosper!"
This is worth billions. I call b.s. on this, as if you look real closely and keep zooming you can see someone on a camel in the background.
I would rather them launch several incredibly large nuclear missiles directly into the sun.
and pigs can fly.
for gosh sake cant we accept the truth.
TRY reading the Bible and beleiveing it
and snakes can talk.
TRY reading a science book - and while you're at it, a grammar book and oh yeah, a spelling book - and
"beleiveing" it.
How does the bible invalidate this? I don't see them as especially contradictory...
No, because their hooves can't handle the joystick
There was an article recently about people being hooked up to electrodes and controlling shuttles with their minds.
Some day, Babe. Some day you'll show them all.
Try reading the bible and make sense out of it.
The gospels disagree with each other in many many cases. So which one is it? Did christ die the day before or the day after passover, the bible says both.
And then the old testament......he circumsizes 318 servants before going out to look for Lot?
Wow, what a story!
oh sure we can post on this story, but when it comes to gun control or some crap our president or government is pulling, "THERE CAN BE NO COMMENT". MSN IS WORKING TOWARDS COMUNISUM.
You notice that too? AND, in most cases when you can post, everyone is asking you to use Facebook. Just press the "like" button and we know everything about you in a matter of minutes. George Orwell, where are you??? Sorry, I do not "like" Facebook.
Delusional
I don't understand to why we spend billion of dollars to looking for life in the universe
when we're unable to live a decent life here in Earth
the history of human civilization speak for itself
I mean come on now
we can't even have a government who can work together anymore
the people don't have a job
we wage war every time we can
2013 there are people who die because they don't have food
and you talk about finding a new life in another planet?
whoooooooooo caressssssssss
civilizations problems are problems inharent in all of us. untill civilizations makes a "code of conduct" for all humanity and then inforces that code, nothing will change.
as it stands now, we are a plauge upon the world.... i dare any one of you to prove me wrong???
we like to think we are better then other creatures. "we are ABOVE them". but in truth we cannot even control ourselves at a basic level. even wolves can control there own numbers. we spread like a virus....
come on...tell me i am wrong....you all know it to be true.
Okay, fix it. You're wrong. Controlling the spread of our population is not controlling ourselves on a basic level, that would be controlling ourselves on the most sophisticated level: long-term planning for the sake of greater social cohesion and success for the species. Wolves do not do that, and it's rather silly that you seem to think they do. That you can even consider that puts you heads and tails "above" those animals.
You can call humanity a plague if you want, but that's a human term to fit a human philosophy about what's "good for the planet" which is a sphere of ethics that only humans are intelligent enough to contemplate. You seem to think that we're in violation of some objective, universal standard of behavior or existence, and as you suggested, I am telling you that you're wrong, as no such thing exists.
Danny, I'll be perfectly frank: I care way more about whether or not there is a possibility of life on other planets than about poor people. Do you seriously think that making sure every slacker, drug addict, and unlucky sod is taken care of to their satisfaction is more important than adding to the sum total of human knowledge? If so, well, you're free to think that, but frankly I'm glad the people in charge are more enlightened.
Think about this.
One (1) rock could ruin your whole day
To be able to stop said rock one needs to know where it is and whats it made of
To be able to do that you need to go there and see
In all of natures natural disasters how many can an do any thing about ? this is one of them if given enough time
Billions of dollars for a bunch of stupid rocks, dollar we don't have for this kind of idiocy and deception. Well they get their funding each time they fool the mass stupid rocks called human.. Send O-Abomination and his minions there, his supporters here are a bunch of stupid rocks, may as well dictate to Mars and it's stupid rocks since there is not a difference between them,, stupid rocks.. glad to see they got a photographer on Mars just for this rover..fools
Well Chucky when you get a little older say 13-15 you may begin to understand but some how I doubt it. Obama is not for space exploration just thought you may want to know he would rathe spend the money on muslim relations then space. You moon hoax types really shouldn't read science articals as it seems to confuse you and make you all upset. I used to try to explain to you halfwits about the importance of space exploration but that just showed me that even in the face of facts morons like you are steadfast in your beliefs. So I gues I will just say this insead and hope you nderstand ... Go away now the adults are talking go k your mom for a cookie and a coloring book as it is a better use of your time .. and ours
Look there is big foot prints,, Idiots, I see Las Vegas in the back ground, again..
Its there are big footprints and you don't use two commas, the lesson is that you are the idiot.
"It's" not its
Maybe if scientists keep wishing and hoping desperately for proof of former life on Mars like they have the last 10 years +, it will come true.
0 evidence to date.
Obama dosent have money for space exploration....He only has enough for him and his buddies...and for illegals!
Couldn't help yourself, could you?
Never was a fan of NASA. Big waste of cash. Space I like. We should have sent them all there. Any private enterprise could have done this in the sixties if they thought it was worth it, and for far less.
But they never would have as there is no profit in it. Life is more than profit.
First, What a crock of Science Sh*t. Careful planning huh? Why not send the Rover to the ice caps? If there is "life" on Mars, then wouldn't it be near there -whether the ice caps or frozen water or frozen CO2?
Second, NASA now is nothing more than a White Collar Welfare system. We lost our manned edge, and are tying to find life on other planets without success. Say for arguments sake, there 'was' life on Mars. How does that justify the Billions of dollars we have spent on Mars Missions? Imagine using those Billions for updating our schools and infrastructure?
Time to get rid of NASA, privatize Space, and save the US Tax payers money.
Oh, wow, you're obviously way smarter than the rocket scientists, biologists, and geologists collaborating on this project! Why didn't they get YOU to run the rover?
What's that? You'd defund space exploration programs to build roads and feed our schools more resources they waste anyway? Well, I guess that's why.
AS FOR THIS STORY.... learning what not to do or doing the work it takes to become knowledgable should be respected.
we would not know how to make a microwave or nuclear weapon if we had not done the work.
there is life out in the universe but more importantly there is almost limitless things behound our comprehention...
entire worlds filled with dinasours... water worlds.....dreamers mining planets.... planets so odd with such unusual life it change the way we think of life itself.
for those of you who are narrow minded, prepare to get you shoes blown the hell off....it is far more amazing then you can dream up.
They, much like the moon hoax ilk would just say it was a fake and how NASA is tring to cover it up. You know the old saying " You can lead a person to knowledge but you can't make them think." In this day and age it is hard for me to understand the people who think space is a waste of time and money. If they said that S.E.T.I picked up a signal from an alien culture would it really be a surprise? If so I hope you can drag your @ss into the 21 centuary and come to terms with it. Billions of stars = trillions of planets and if you believe we humans are the alpha and omega .... well what can one say except I hope you are wrong
I am betting on that! -joe
If we would like to have an essentially unlimited amount of funds to continue future exploration of Mars, we would have a drone equiped with cameras to fly over and into the Grand Canyon of Mars - Valles Marineris. I'd give good QE III money to see that in a theater near by. You could call it a tax or a fee, it wouldn't bother me, but it sure would garner a lot of money for NASA. We might even see something we wouldn't while standing on the rim.
This is wonderful news! Mars could support life (or did at one time). Now we have a place to put the Democrats!!
This is wonderful news! Now we have a place to send the Democrats!!
There won't be any life in Chicago soon and their suppose be humans there
@RJM6-17712
Congratulations! You ARE the missing link!
Please don't act like you are personally keeping up with any real scientific discoveries made in the last hundred years. All you do is read MSN or hype news and troll it. WE are ALL transitionary species and we are ALL missing links. If you want specifics, you can find them by visiting reputable websites made by people who did NOT get their degree from a religious school.
I will agree with you on one point though. I'm sick of reading these kinds of stories where they give us a blurb about finding life, only to read on and find we're still not sure. Stop jerking us around and wait to report till there's something to report on!