We May Have Detected New Organic Compounds in Martian Rocks

Evidence of organic compounds may have been found in the rocks of the Jezero crater.

Evidence of organic compounds has been found before. Data from Perseverance has been returned by the Mars Express orbiter. A variety of geological phenomena can be used to facilitate carbon-based chemistry.

Studying these compounds in greater detail could reveal more about the water history of Mars, as well as the possibility that the Red Planet once hosted some kind of living processes.

There is evidence of aquatic processes that carve out perfect little hollows for cooking up some organic chemistry in the minerals. They may have traces of carbon-based compounds.

The Jezero crater was a lot more wet than it is now. The ancient river delta is still visible on the crater floor. The organic compounds found in the ancient Delta can be formed by interactions between water and rock.

There are questions as to whether there are also organic compounds on the crater floor. When Perseverance arrived, scientists realized that much of the crater floor was volcanic rather than sedimentary.

An international team led by planetary scientist Eva Scheller of Caltech and MIT conducted a probe of the crater floor using Perseverance's Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and luminescence for Organics and Chemicals.

There were signs that water had changed the rocks when they used deep ultraviolet Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy on them.

There was evidence of two different environments in the distant past.

The formation of carbonates in the rock was caused by reactions with liquid water.

briny water rich in salt could have caused sulfate-perchlorate to form in the rocks.

Water is required to enter the rocks, dissolving and depositing minerals in hollows carved out by water erosion. Since the perchlorates were deposited, the water is unlikely to touch the rocks.

The team found signs of aromatic organic compounds in all three rocks. The researchers say that these seem to be preserved in minerals related to both environments.

The data shows that the samples drilled from the floor of Jezero crater are likely to contain evidence for the formation of sulfates and perchlorates.

Theescence signatures are consistent with organics present in the materials.

The sites at which these data collections were conducted have moved on. It collected samples of the rocks itself in the event that they are ferried back to Earth later on a mission that has yet to launch.

Mark Sephton of Imperial College London hopes that one day these samples will be returned to Earth so that we can look at the evidence of water and possible organic matter.

It will be awhile until we get the confirmation we want. If we could get those rocks into an Earth laboratory, we could learn more about Mars' past habitability.

Perseverance is continuing to look at the Jezero Crater.

We don't have to make a decision.

The research has appeared in a journal.