New clue in the search of life on Mars
For decades, scientists have asked one of humanity’s biggest questions: Are we alone in the universe? A new discovery on Mars may have just brought us one step closer to finding out. Researchers studying samples collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover have identified the largest organic molecules ever found on Mars—long chains of carbon-based compounds that could be fragments of ancient fatty acids. On Earth, fatty acids are fundamental building blocks of life, forming the membranes of living cells. The molecules were discovered in a 3.7-billion-year-old rock sample taken from an ancient lakebed in Gale Crater, a place scientists believe once […]
