Unknown Organic Molecules on Mars Found By NASA Rover

Organic molecules are important building blocks for life as we know it. Curiosity's new technique is an effective tool for detecting organic molecules.

Curiosity was hit by a literal bump in the road and had to be repaired before it could continue its search for life on Mars.

The drill on the rover stopped working as it was about to sample the Martian rock. Researchers at NASA didn't put a break on the mission until the issue could be fixed. The sand that had been collected from the beach was put into the chemistry lab.

It is difficult to detect organic compounds within Martian rock because they break up into simpler molecules. If these organic compounds react with other chemicals first, they are more likely to use a gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer for analysis.

Hence, the nine cups of solvent. It's a system that allows us to analyze soil on Mars from our own planet. It has never been put to the test.

"This derivatization experiment on Mars has expanded the inventory of molecules present in Martian samples and demonstrated a powerful tool to further enable the search for polar organic molecules of biotic or prebiotic relevance," wrote the NASA research team.

We knew the wet chemistry cups could work once engineers on Earth were able to fix the drill. The second cup was ready to be used for a sample of clay-bearing rock.

There will be more analyses on Mars and on Earth. NASA wants to collect the rest of Curiosity's samples so they can be analyzed back on our planet.

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