Is there life on Mars? – Voice of America

methane in the Martian atmosphere and organic chemicals in the soil of Mars are the latest findings from NASA’s Curiosity rover, hunting for clues about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Scientists NASA said Curiosity found periodic traces of methane, a gas on Earth is strongly linked to life in the atmosphere around where it landed, the Gale Crater Mars.

The rover has also found organic chemicals in the soil of Mars, scientists said at the press conference of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

The rover measured “a rise tenfold” methane in the atmosphere, detecting other organic molecules in a sample collected by a robotic drill, according to a statement from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA.

“There are many possible, biological or non-biological sources such as the interaction of water and rock, “said Sushil Atreya, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a member of the Curiosity rover science team.

The latest findings are part of the data collected by the rover in two years since landing inside Gale Crater in August 2012.

Last week, scientists said they determined that billions of years ago, a lake filled the 154 km wide crater. This finding is further evidence that Mars, the most Earthlike planet in the solar system, was once suitable for microbial life.

Shortly after landing, Curiosity discovered that Mars once had the chemical ingredients and environmental conditions needed to support microbial life, fulfilling the main purpose of their mission.

The rover, which has traveled about five miles from its landing on Mars, has been exploring an area known as Mount Sharp, where rocks containing sediments deposited by water, to see if the conditions for life actually existed long enough for life to evolve found.

“We will continue working on puzzles presented by these these findings, “said John Grotzinger, Curiosity project scientist at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

” The challenge now is to find other rocks on Mount Sharp that could have different and more extensive inventories of organic compounds, “said another project scientist, Roger Summons of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.