Curiosity Has Found Nitrates Important for Life on Mars

sample obtained by NASA ’s Curiosity rover on Mars havebeen analyzedand bear witness to check nitrogen compounds , that are a root of nutrients for living things .

investigator have been scour Mars for sign of organic carbon , but they ’ve now chance on sign of nitrates at three arena on the Red Planet — Rocknest , John Klein and Cumberland . The sites were visited during a roundabout way from the rover ’s main mission to visit Mount Sharp . The finding add a little more weight to the proposition that Mars could have once played host to life sentence .

Rock sample from these locationswere analyzedin Curiosity ’s on - board lab — a variety of oven that break sample down and then senses front of exceptional chemical compound . Subtracting pollution outcome from Curiosity itself , the researcher observed the comportment of nitric oxide , which is known to be produced from nitrate .

Amazon Arzopa

The quantity of nitrogen compound vary between the site , with nitrogen levels of between 70 and 1,100 parts per million . That ’s corresponding to dry place on Earth like the Atacama Desert .

“ People want to come after the carbon , but in many way nitrogen is just as important a food for life , ” explained Jennifer Stern , a NASA geochemist , to the LA Times . “ lifespan runs on atomic number 7 as much as it go on carbon . ” Nitrates are an important beginning of nitrogen for live things , because it ’s easier to obtain the element by breaking down such compound than it is to extract it right away from the gentle wind .

The researchers submit that the nitrates were most belike work by a thermic daze — such as lightning smasher or asteroid wallop — as fight down to by survive thing as they are on Earth . But they do n’t know for sure ; that ’s the next thing they want to get out . [ PNASviaLA Times on PhysOrg ]

Sonos Speaker Move 2