Curiosity Rover Finds Organic Signal on Mars, But Not Definitive: NASA

[n2doc]

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has discovered complex chemistry on the Red Planet after, as well as hints of long-sought organic compounds that could aid primitive life, scientists announced today (Dec. 3).

The Curiosity rover found evidence of chlorine, sulfur and water in Mars dirt studied by its onboard laboratory, as well as organic compounds (chemicals containing carbon) inside its Sample Analysis at Mars instrument. However, the science team can't yet be sure whether these compounds truly come from Mars, or arise from contamination transported to the Red Planet onboard Curiosity.

"SAM has no definitive detection to report of organic compounds," Paul Mahaffy, SAM principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said during a press conference at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

"Even though [Mahaffy's] instrument detected organic compounds, first of all we have to determine whether they're indigenous to Mars," said John Grotzinger, Curiosity's project scientist.

The announcement came after recent rumors—which NASA attempted to dampen last week — that Curiosity had made a huge discovery on Mars.

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http://www.space.com/18741-mars-rover-curiosity-discovery.html

[demwing]

1. What happened to "One for the history books?"

My son told me - "watch...the gvt will cover up whatever they really found, and announce a minor find instead."

All that excitement for ???

[arcane1]

2. I believe that remark was about the Curiosity mission in general n/t

[demwing]

3. Quote here:

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now

"Grotzinger (John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission) says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something remarkable. 'This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,' he says."

Now they say it's nothing, and never was?

Bullshit.

[struggle4progress]

4. "... The Curiosity mission was designed to find conditions on Mars conducive to life: water, heat

and organic compounds — the building blocks of life on Earth. Three months after a dramatic touchdown and nearly flawless operations, the mission has ticked off one of those boxes: It landed in a dry riverbed, evidenced by rocks shaped by flowing water ..."
Mars rover Curiosity finds organic compounds, not life
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/mars-rover-finds-organic-compounds-not-life/2012/12/03/5feef90e-3d6a-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html

[struggle4progress]

5. "... The observation by Curiosity involved perchlorate, a reactive compound of oxygen and chlorine

that had previously been found in the Martian arctic by NASA's Phoenix lander ..."The chlorine is of Martian orgin, but it's possible the carbon may be of Earth origin, carried by Curiosity and detected by SAM's high sensitivity design," NASA officials wrote in a statement ..."

Curiosity Hints at Mars Organics, Perchlorate
Analysis by DNews Editors
Mon Dec 3, 2012 02:28 PM ET
http://news.discovery.com/space/curiosity-hints-at-mars-organics-perchlorate-121203.html