Photo: NASA / Getty Images
By: The Opinion Updated 54 Nov 2022, 23: 23 pm EST
The rover Perseverance NASA has been looking for signs of life on Mars since it landed on an ancient lake bed on the red planet in February 2022 and recently ddetected organic molecules.
The teams behind each of Perseverence’s specialized instruments, who search for signs of life on the red planet, published summaries of their findings in a batch of three studies on Wednesday.
In the SHERLOC study, an ultraviolet spectrometer aboard the rover, it was reported that this instrument was able to detect organic molecules, which are key ingredients for life, which would confirm that in the Jezero crater habitability conditions ever existed.
The scientists in charge of the rover’s instruments revealed that
are looking for organic compounds because they consider them to be the building blocks of life. They added that they want to see liquid water and organic compounds together in an environment because they are the key components of what could make a habitable environment.
The results of SHERLOC help to reconstruct the history of water and organic compounds on Mars, and confirm that the Jezero crater had what it took to harbor microbes, although that does not ensure that life really arose on the red planet.
The search for Perseverance on Mars
NASA considers that it is possible that simple life forms have arisen in the lakes and rivers that flowed during an ancient epoch on Mars, so he sent Perseverance to that planet.
Perseverance was sent to Mars to search for
fossil traces of any past Martian microbes. The rover is also collecting samples from Jezero crater.
The mission team looks forward to collect the samples collected with a future spacecraft so they can be sent to Earth for more rigorous examination.
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