Forbes: Curiosity has discovered “biological” carbon on Mars, but it’s too early to talk about “traces of life”

The Curiosity rover collected organic matter that would be considered biogenic on Earth, but it’s too early to talk about the discovery of “traces of life” on Mars, the author of the Forbes publication believes.

In his opinion, planetary scientists need more information to understand how the mysterious samples formed.

“Scientists working with the Curiosity rover reported in the journal MNRAS about the amazing discovery. The organic samples collected in the area of ​​the ancient lake turned out to be too low of carbon-13. If we were talking about the Earth, this would be a strong argument in favor of the fact that the substance was recycled by living organisms. This is how they find traces of ancient life on our planet, ”Forbes emphasizes.

They remind that “carbon is the most important component of any biological (and generally organic) molecule”, and this element accounts for 18% of the mass of the human body.

At the same time, the author of the publication points out, “living beings prefer carbon-12 to slightly heavier carbon-13 and more readily absorb the first from the environment.” “Therefore, in a substance that was once part of living organisms, the content of 13C is noticeably reduced. And the more cycles of biological processing carbon has gone through, the greater this difference. Some processes in inanimate nature also wash out the heavy isotope from samples, but not as efficiently as living organisms. Therefore, the depletion of carbon-13 is an important, although not indisputable, sign that life has worked on the substance, ”the publication notes.

Meanwhile, carbon on Mars itself is far from new: the planet’s atmosphere is almost entirely composed of carbon dioxide. “This is not the first time organic matter has been found there, and in itself it does not indicate life. There are an unusually large number of organic substances, and the vast majority of them are formed without any participation of living organisms. But the lack of carbon-13 is already a more serious argument, ”the author of the publication believes.

Curiosity examined 24 samples taken from five different locations in Gale Crater, and ten of them showed significant carbon-13 depletion.

However, according to Forbes, “the answer to the sacramental question of whether there is life on Mars, the new results are not.” “But it is too early to despair. The Curiosity team is going to collect and analyze many more samples. In addition, the Perseverance rover, specifically designed to search for life, is operating on Mars. And at the beginning of the 2030s, the delivery of soil samples from Mars to terrestrial laboratories is scheduled. Maybe then the riddle that astronomers are facing today will be solved, ”the publication concludes.