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Life on Mars? Organic truffle molecules discovered on Red Planet – Sky News, Sky.com

Life on Mars? Organic truffle molecules discovered on Red Planet – Sky News, Sky.com
                                                     

Organic molecules found on Earth in coal, crude oil, and white truffles have been discovered on Mars, suggesting the possible existence of early life on the planet.

The thiophene molecules were probably produced through biological processes, rather than chemical ones, according to Washington State University astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch.

The announcement comes as NASA’s Curiosity rover captured its highest-resolution panorama of the Martian surface yet, composed of more than 1, 03 images and 1.8 billion pixels.

  

The largest white truffle in the world is on display at Sotheby's New York on December 5, 2014. The truffle was found last week in the Umbrian region of Italy weighing 4.16 pounds or 1.89 kilos. It is nearly twice the size of the existing record holder, which was sold for $417,200 in 2010. Sothebys will offer this truffel on December 6 and with expected to start at $50,000. AFP PHOTO / Timothy A CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

      

Image:
         A molecule found in white truffles has been discovered on Mars       

Alongside Jacob Heinz at the Technische Universitat in Berlin, Mr Schulze-Makuch explained his team’s reasoning in a new paper published in the journal Astrobiology.

“We identified several biological pathways for thiophenes that seem more likely than chemical ones, but we still need proof, “Mr Schulze-Makuch said.

“If you find thiophenes on Earth, then you would think they are biological, but on Mars, of course, the bar to prove that has to be quite a bit higher,” he added.

The pair considered that meteor impacts could create the compound because of the huge pressures involved, as could a particular kind of chemical process which would require the compounds to be heated to (F) C) or more.

But the scientists believe that the biological scenario is more likely, saying that bacteria which could have existed when Mars was warmer and wetter more than three billion years ago could have produced the compound.

The data collected by the Curiosity rover has provided a lot of clues, but the techniques it uses to analyze large molecules means that scientists are only able to look at fragments.

  

Mars is also known as the red planet

      

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         Definitive proof of life may have to wait for a manned mission       

NASA’s next Martian rover, the Rosalind Franklin – which is expected to launch in July – will be better equipped to make these analyzes.

One of the instruments it is carrying, the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) uses a less destructive method which will allow it to collect larger molecules.

Mr Schulze-Makuch and Mr Heinz hope the next rover will look for carbon and sulfur isotopes, which would provide another great clue as to whether life existed on Mars.

“Organisms are lazy,” explained Mr Schulze-Makuch. “They would rather use the light isotope variations of the element because it costs them less energy.”

But even if the new rover does provide this isotopic evidence, it might not prove definitively whether there is or was life on Mars.

“As Carl Sagan said ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’,” Mr Schulze-Makuch said.

“I think the proof will really require that we actually send people there, and an astronaut looks through a microscope and sees a moving microbe. “

                        Mars is also known as the red planet Mars is also known as the red planet Read More Mars is also known as the red planetMars is also known as the red planet

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