Life Mars

• NASA's Perseverance rover has discovered the largest concentration of complex organic molecules to date within mudstones in the Jezero Crater. • The findings consist of macromolecular carbon, which are complex carbon-based compounds that serve as the chemical backbone for all known life on Earth. • This discovery provides the strongest evidence yet of potential ancient life on Mars, as the rover has been exploring this specific region since February 2021.

• NASA's Perseverance rover has detected the most complex organic chemistry ever found on Mars within mudstones located in the Jezero Crater. • This discovery follows similar findings by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater, situated over 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) away. • The presence of organic-bearing materials in two distinct locations suggests that the raw ingredients for life and environments capable of preserving them were widespread across the planet.

• NASA's Perseverance rover has detected organic carbon molecules in rocks located on an ancient Martian riverbed that flowed billions of years ago. • This discovery complements previous findings by the Curiosity rover in the Gale crater, meaning organic-bearing mudstones have now been identified more than 2,000 miles apart. • While these signatures are potential indicators of ancient microbial life, scientists caution that they do not yet provide definitive proof of biological activity.

• NASA's Perseverance rover has detected hundreds of organic molecules within two mudstone samples in the Jezero crater on Mars. • These findings represent the most robust detection of complex carbon-based materials to date in this specific region of the Red Planet. • The discovery is significant because organic compounds are essential building blocks for life, strengthening the hypothesis that Mars once hosted ancient microbes.

• NASA is reportedly shifting its priorities away from the active search for life on Mars, placing the long-standing quest in a state of limbo. • This pivot comes 50 years after the Viking 1 mission initiated the search for Martian organisms, a goal once championed by scientists like Carl Sagan and Joshua Lederberg. • The shift matters because it represents a departure from an "existential quest" to find extraterrestrial life, which has driven Martian exploration for decades.

CCTV cameras caught the carnivorous marsupial skulking around deserted grounds at 4am Tuesday morningFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA search is under way on Queensland’s Gold Coast for a missing Tasmanian devil who escaped her enclosure in a daring early morning dash caught on camera.The devil, named Mary, did a Houdini from the Paradise Country theme park, escaping from quarantine in the early hours of Tuesday. Continue reading...

Scientists think they are looking at chemical building blocks of life preserved for 3.5bn yearsNasa’s Curiosity rover has detected organic molecules on Mars, including chemicals widely considered building blocks for the origin of life of Earth.Five of the seven molecules identified in a dried lakebed near the equator had never previously been observed on the red planet. The analysis, performed by the robotic rover, cannot establish whether the organic compounds are linked to potential ancient life on Mars or were delivered by meteorites or formed through geological processes. However, they imply that if microbial life once thrived on Mars, chemical fingerprints should remain there today. Continue reading...