Did NASA's Curiosity Rover Just Find Ancient Life On Mars?
NASA scientists recently confirmed an 'intriguing' discovery of carbon on Mars — and one possibility of that carbon are remnants of ancient Martian life. Ever since humans started exploring the universe, Mars has been a constant point of fascination. The dusty, red planet has a solid surface, large deposits of frozen water, and is speculated to have once had ancient life billions of years ago.
While scientists and astronomers have learned a lot about Mars over the last few decades, confirming the presence of life isn't one of them. However, that's not to say the organization hasn't tried. The Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2012 to see if the alien world was ever habitable for microbial life. Perseverance arrived in February 2021 with a similar mission, tasked with exploring Mars for signs of past and present life.
Related: Perseverance Uncovers Mysterious Mars 'Wall' In Incredible New Photos
Per a new report published by NASA, it appears the team is one step closer to possibly detecting life on Mars. On January 17, the organization confirmed the Curiosity rover had found several carbon signatures after analyzing powdered rock samples. While this isn't the first time Curiosity's detected carbon on Mars, these specific samples «are rich in a type of carbon that on Earth is associated with biological processes.» Assuming life on Mars happened the same way it does on Earth, the explanation of the unusual carbon is fairly simple. Assuming Mars did have ancient life, bacteria in the planet's surface would create carbon while releasing methane into Mars' atmosphere. UV light would then convert that gas into larger molecules, with those molecules coming back to the surface and hiding in rocks on the planet — hence the
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