Saturday, November 6, 2021

Curiosity sniffs something on Mars

 

This news is really fresh, but it might not smell that way.  Plus, the actual experiment that is being described was actually performed, on Mars, in 2016.  It took some years to get the results into scientific print, obviously.

NASA Rover Has Found Previously Unknown Organic Molecules on Mars

If you don't read that, the quick summary is that back in 2016, the Curiosity drill malfunctioned, and to see if their wet chemistry analyzers worked, the drivers and scientists decided to use a soil sample that they had in the scoop.  So they dropped the soil into the vessel with the chemicals (solvents) to run the test. 

The published results state that they found organic molecules, which the article mentions included ammonia (stinky) and benzoic acid.  I double-checked and confirmed that ammonia (NH3) is not organic, but it can commonly combine with organic molecules and make nitrogenated organic molecules. Urea is an example of a simple one. 

They've since performed experiment number two, results pending. 

If you want to see where Curiosity is now, go here.  It's still climbing up Mount Sharp.  I hope it gets to the top.




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