<ul><li class="author"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/author/adammann930/">Adam Mann</a><span class="authorEmail"><a href="mailto:adammann930@gmail.com" title="Email the Author"><br></a></span></li><li class="entryDate">
November 20, 2012 | </li><li class="entryTime">6:28 pm | </li><li class="entryCategories">Categories: <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/category/space/" title="View all posts in Space" rel="category tag">Space</a></li>
</ul><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/curiosity-historic-news-organics/">http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/curiosity-historic-news-organics/</a></p><p>Much of the <a href="http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2012/11/earthshaking-news-coming-from-nasa-on-mars/" target="_blank">internet is</a> <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/11/20/curiosity-mars-discovery/" target="_blank">buzzing over</a> upcoming “big news” from NASA’s Curiosity rover, but the space agency’s scientists are keeping quiet about the details.</p>
<p>The report comes by way of the rover’s principal investigator, geologist <a href="http://www.gps.caltech.edu/people/grotz/profile" target="_blank">John Grotzinger</a> of
Caltech, who said that Curiosity has uncovered exciting new results
from a sample of Martian soil recently scooped up and placed in the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/instruments-mars-rover/" target="_blank">Sample Analysis at Mars</a> (SAM) instrument.</p>
<p>“This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now" target="_blank">Grotzinger told NPR</a>
in an segment published Nov. 20. Curiosity’s SAM instrument contains a
vast array of tools that can vaporize soil and rocks to analyze them
and measure the abundances of certain light elements such as carbon,
oxygen, and nitrogen – chemicals typically associated with life.</p>
<p>The mystery will be revealed shortly, though. Grotzinger told Wired
through e-mail that NASA would hold a press conference about the results
during the <a href="http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2012/" target="_blank">2012 American Geophysical Union meeting</a>
in San Francisco from Dec. 3 to 7. Because it’s so potentially
earth-shaking, Grotzinger said the team remains cautious and is checking
and double-checking their results. But while NASA is refusing to
discuss the findings with anyone outside the team, especially reporters,
other scientists are free to speculate.</p>
<p>“If it’s going in the history books, organic material is what I expect,” says planetary scientist <a href="http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/resources/faculty/faculty.php?nom=Smith" target="_blank">Peter Smith</a> from
the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Smith is
formerly the principal investigator on a previous Mars mission, the <a href="http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/index.php" target="_blank">Phoenix lander</a>, which touched down at the Martian North Pole in 2008. “It may be just a hint, but even a hint would be exciting.”</p>
<p>Smith added that he is not in contact with anyone from the Curiosity
team about their results and offered his assessment as an informed
outside researcher.<br>
<span id="more-138345"></span></p>
<p>Organic molecules are those that contain carbon and are potential
indicators of life. During its mission, Phoenix heated a sample of soil
to search for organics but these efforts were stymied by the presence of
perchlorates, chemical salts that sit in the Martian soil. Perchlorates
react to heat and destroy any complex organic molecules, leaving only
carbon dioxide, which is abundant in the Martian atmosphere.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/viking/" target="_blank">Viking landers</a>,
which explored opposite sides of Mars in the late 1970s, also conducted
a search for organic molecules and came up empty. For decades
afterward, astronomers considered Mars to be a dead planet, with
conditions not very conducive to life. After the results from Phoenix,
scientists realized that perchlorates were probably messing with those
earlier findings as well, and could account for their negative outcome.</p>
<p>Curiosity’s suite of laboratory instruments are able to slowly heat a
sample in a way that doesn’t trigger the perchlorates. They can also
weigh any molecules present, determining how much carbon, oxygen, and
hydrogen they are made from. Simple organic compounds wouldn’t be
completely shocking, said Smith, since these probably come from
meteorites originating in the asteroid belt and probably are around on
present-day Mars. But they would indicate that the building blocks for
life are present on Mars and might only need the addition of water,
which Mars had in the past, in order to produce organisms.</p>
<p>“If they found signatures of a very complex organic type, that would
be astounding,” said Smith, since they would likely be leftovers from
complex life forms that once roamed Mars. But the odds of finding such a
startling result in a sample of sand scooped from a random dune are
“very, very low,” Smith said.</p>
<p>Smith cautioned against speculating too much, since rumors have a way
of spreading rapidly when it comes to any discussion of potential life
on Mars. During his tenure on the Phoenix mission, his team was
evaluating the interesting perchlorate results, which they kept secret
during analysis. Rumors got out and then became worse when an
unsubstantiated report claimed a member of his team meeting was meeting
with the White House.</p>
<p>“When you keep things secret, people start thinking all kinds of crazy things,” he said.</p>
<p><em>Image: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16239.html" target="_blank">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems</a></em></p><p>-------------------------------------------</p><p>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett<br>
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