(NASA) – The Curiosity rover found organic material and mysterious methane on Mars that suggest evidence that the planet could have supported ancient life, NASA announced Thursday.
The organic molecules, discovered in three-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface, contain carbon and hydrogen, and might also include oxygen and nitrogen.
"With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said. "I’m confident that our ongoing and planned missions will unlock even more breathtaking discoveries on the Red Planet."
"Curiosity has not determined the source of the organic molecules," Jen Eigenbrode of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said. "Whether it holds a record of ancient life, was food for life, or has existed in the absence of life, organic matter in Martian materials holds chemical clues to planetary conditions and processes."
According to NASA, billions of years ago a water lake inside Gale Crater held ingredients necessary for life, data from the rover reveals.
"The Martian surface is exposed to radiation from space. Both radiation and harsh chemicals break down organic matter," said Eigenbrode. "Finding ancient organic molecules in the top five centimeters of rock that was deposited when Mars may have been habitable, bodes well for us to learn the story of organic molecules on Mars with future missions that will drill deeper."
As far as the methane, NASA said it shows the possibility of biological origins, but could also have been generated by water-rock chemistry.
"This is the first time we've seen something repeatable in the methane story, so it offers us a handle in understanding it," Chris Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said. "This is all possible because of Curiosity's longevity. The long duration has allowed us to see the patterns in this seasonal 'breathing.'"
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