Mars Curiosity detect organic chemical compounds and … – Boursorama

  
 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Dec. 16 (Reuters) – The Curiosity rover NASA has detected the presence of organic chemicals in the soil of Mars and sporadic methane fumes in its atmosphere, said on Tuesday US scientists. Methane is a gas strongly linked on Earth to life. Researchers from NASA, JPL laboratory in California, announced that the rover, which landed in August 2012 at the surface of the red planet, had measured a “tenfold” methane levels in the atmosphere near the craft. Furthermore, it has determined the presence of organic molecules in a sample by a drill. “There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, like a water interaction and rocks,” said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan. Last week, scientists have determined that this is billions of years, a lake filled the crater 154 km wide currently explored by Curiosity. This discovery is another sign suggesting that Mars, the planet most similar to Earth in the solar    system, was formerly hosted microbial life forms. The rover, which ran eight kilometers from its arrival on Mars, exploring an area known as Mount Sharp, where the rocks were found containing sediments deposited by water. (Irene Klotz, Eric Faye for the French service) 
  

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