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    Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) tagged posts

    NASA’s Curiosity Rover measures intriguing Carbon Signature on Mars

    January 19, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image shows the Highfield drill hole made by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover as it was collecting a sample on “Vera Rubin Ridge” in Gale Crater.
     
    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    The type of carbon is associated with biological processes on Earth. Curiosity scientists offer several explanations for the unusual carbon signals. After analyzing powdered rock samples collected from the surface of Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover, scientists have announced that several of the samples are rich in a type of carbon that on Earth is associated with biological processes.

    While the finding is intriguing, it doesn’t necessarily point to ancient life on Mars, as scientists have not yet found conclusive supporting evidence of ancient or current biology there, such as sedimentary rock formations ...

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    NASA’s Curiosity Rover finds clues to chilly Ancient Mars buried in Rocks

    May 20, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This graphic depicts paths by which carbon has been exchanged among Martian interior, surface rocks, polar caps, waters and atmosphere, and it also depicts a mechanism by which it is lost from the atmosphere.
    Credits: Lance Hayashida/Caltech

    By studying the chemical elements on Mars today — including carbon and oxygen — scientists can work backwards to piece together the history of a planet that once had the conditions necessary to support life.

    Weaving this story, element by element, from roughly 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) away is a painstaking process. But scientists aren’t the type to be easily deterred...

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