Everyone from David Bowie to astrobiologists to tinfoil hat believer has speculate the question : is there biography on Mars ? While we ’ve found direct evidence ofliquid water on the Red Planet , we have yet to find any bug there . But not all Leslie Townes Hope is lost — new discoveries from NASA ’s Curiosity wanderer have brought forth more compelling evidence of habitability on Mars . I mean , in theory , all that spirit has been beat for billions of years , but still .
Researchers hit the books Curiosity ’s information say the rover has discover boron in the3.8 billion year - honest-to-god Gale crater . Boron is an element that can catalyse the formation of RNA — or ribonucleic battery-acid , the single - stranded atomic number 6 written matter of DNA obtain in all living cell — when dissolve in water . The B was discovered in Ca sulphate mineral nervure suggestive of ancient groundwater , so theteam believesthis could intend at least some of the water once present in Gale Crater had condition favorable to the emergence of life . The determination have beenpublishedin the Geophysical Research Letters .
“ Because borate may play an important role in making RNA — one of the construction block of sprightliness — find boron on Mars further launch the possibility that biography could have once arisen on the satellite , ” the subject field ’s lead author , Patrick Gasda , a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos , New Mexico , said in a assertion . “ borate are one possible bridge from simple constitutional speck to RNA . Without RNA , you have no life . The presence of boron tells us that , if organics were present on Mars , these chemical reactions could have occurred . ”
[ Geophysical Research Letters ]
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