"News from Mars," CNN reported Friday. "There was not only water, millions of years ago, but also organic compounds."
In an interview with Caroline Smith, Head of Earth Sciences at the UK's Natural History Museum, the CNN asked the million dollar question.
"How likely is it that life once existed on Mars?"
“Αυτό που βρήκαμε με δεδομένα που προέρχονται από το Rover και έχουν μελετηθεί τους τελευταίους μήνες είναι ότι έχουμε πυριγενείς πέτρες – πρόκειται για πετρώματα που έχουν σχηματιστεί μέσω ηφαιστειακών διεργασιών – οι οποίες επίσης επηρεάζονται από τη δράση του νερού.
And this is actually very interesting and exciting, because water is one of the basic ingredients you need for life to begin. So if there is any chance of life on Mars, water must have existed somewhere for at least a period of time. We have good evidence for this.
Now this is combined with the fact that we watch, using tools like SHERLOCK, which is a tool I work with, the presence of organic molecules. Organic molecules are chemical molecules composed of the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sometimes sulfur, sometimes phosphorus, and perhaps some additional elements. All of this is actually very important, because organic molecules are needed for life to begin.
The other thing that's really interesting about organic molecules is that they can actually be a kind of fossilized chemical evidence of possible past life."
