Evidence of diverse organic material has been found on Mars

What is the Jezero Crater?

Exploration of the Jezero Crater – where the organic molecules were recently discovered – first began in 2021.

This crater is particularly interesting to NASA because it is believed to be a remnant of an ancient lake basin, which indicates a high potential for past habitability.

The Perseverance Rover has been tasked with surveying this region and is fitted with tools to complete the task of fine-scale mapping and detecting possible organic molecules and minerals.

Using this technology, scientists have been able to learn more about the geological makeup of the rocky surface. They’ve already discovered that the crater contains clays and minerals, substances highly capable of preserving various organic materials.

Looking closely at the data collected from the floor of the Jezero Crater, researchers found indications that organic matter was present on all of the targets observed.

This is especially exciting as organic molecules are composed of carbon, as well as other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur – often regarded as the building blocks of life.

So why aren’t NASA’s astrobiologists screaming to the hills about finding evidence of life on Mars?

Finding organic matter means possible life forms, right?

Not always.

It’s true that organic material is produced by biological processes, but it can also be produced by geological processes too.

So although this discovery suggests that Mars has a more active history than originally thought, scientists won’t be jumping to conclusions about whether the organic matter is proof of past or current life on the planet.

In the early stages of analysing the compounds, experts say they appeared most closely connected to minerals linked to water. However, officially confirming their existence and classifying them will require having the samples sent back to Earth.

Sunanda Sharma, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has said that retrieving the samples is a key goal.

‘We are very careful with laying out claims — claiming that life is the source of organics or possible biosignatures is a last-resort hypothesis, meaning we would need to rule out any non-biological source of origin,’ he continued.

It may be a bummer to know that the first samples from Mars are set to launch in 2027 and aren’t expected to arrive until the year 2033.

Nonetheless, it’s exciting to see how frequently NASA’s rovers have been uncovering some of the red planet’s secrets – and it’s anybody’s guess what they’ll find next.