![]() ![]() But samples that were shielded from ultraviolet radiation showed little change - so the best place to look might just be a few feet beneath Perseverance’s wheels. If biomolecules start to break down quickly from exposure to solar radiation through the thin Martian atmosphere (and lack of magnetic field), this means that the surface might not be a very fruitful place to look for traces of Martian life. Even the most resilient molecules (chlorophyllin and quercetin) were just half as common as they were when they were first exposed. The other four - beta carotene, naringenin, cellulose, and chitin (which lines the cells of fungi) - were much harder to detect. Then the whole thing was strapped to the outside of the International Space Station for 469 days.Īfter almost sixteen months, only three of the seven were readily detectable by spectroscopy: chlorophyllin, quercetin, and melanin. Speaking with Inverse, team leader and astrobiologist Mickael Baqué explains, “if Martian life evolved, they - or some similar structures - would play a significant role in Martian life.” The team’s experiment tested just how long organic molecules might survive in an environment like Mars’ by taking samples of seven organic molecules they thought would be most likely to be akin to what Martian life would need, mixing them into simulated Martian dirt, sealing them in with a Mars-like atmosphere.ĮXPOSE-R2 simulated the stuff of life - then battered it with radiation levels like those on Mars. This system serves two purposes on probes like Perseverance: looking at the makeup of minerals in the Martian regolith, and seeing if it can spot any organic residue along the way. Raman spectroscopy relies on shining a laser on a sample, then observing the way the light is scattered by the vibration of bonds between atoms in a molecule’s system. Part of Perseverance’s kit is Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals - or SHERLOC to its friends. ![]() WHAT’S NEW - Perseverance and other Martian probes use a whole suite of instruments to detect the presence of organic molecules in the regolith. ![]() Raman, who discovered it nearly a century ago - to a simulated Mars in Earth orbit, only a few traces of life remained at the surface.īut there might be a gold mine for astrobiologists beneath the probes’ wheels - it’s just that rovers haven’t been able to dig deep enough to get at it. After exposing the sorts of organic molecules most easily detected by the technique - known as Raman spectroscopy after Indian physicist C.V. But Curiosity and Perseverance’s discoveries of organic molecules on the Martian surface could just be the tip of the iceberg.Īccording to a newly published paper in Science Advances, a team working with the European Space Agency’s EXPOSE-R2 system on the International Space Station have found that the technique Perseverance used might have trouble finding many molecules to detect. Early this year, NASA announced that its Perseverance rover had found organic molecules on Mars by shining a laser through samples collected in Jezero Crater, adding to the rover Curiosity's finds in 2018. ![]()
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