America’s little researcher on the surface of Mars, the rover Curiosity, has discovered the chemicals that may have been the building blocks for life on Mars at some point. Curiosity is “toodling” around in the Glen Torridon region of the Gale crater, an area which scientists believe could have supported conditions of life in an earlier phase of Mars’ development. Curiosity utilized its onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), an instrument that was built to search for compounds of carbon, in the investigation.
Curiosity used a chemical known as tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) to detect organic molecules in the sulfur-bearing clay-rich sandstone. It was able to identify organic molecules such as nitrogen and other sulfur-bearing molecules that are similar to those that helped spur life on Earth. It still remains to determine whether these were produced from inorganic matter or are the result of previous life on Mars.
