Tag Archives: Mars

Evening moon, popular planets and extreme sports on Mars

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Face west-northwest tonight to see the moon near the star Regulus as well as a tight group of four bright sky objects – two stars an two planets. Created with Stellarium

The ambling moon is one day shy of first quarter phase tonight and lights up the sky near the star Regulus in Leo the Lion. Closer to the horizon, Venus and Mercury couple up with Gemini’s brightest stars Pollux and Castor, with bright Capella glimmering alone in the north.

Mercury and Venus join up for a conjunction (close pairing) on the 19th and 20th, while the moon passes near Saturn on June 18-19. Mars and Jupiter are both too close to the sun to see, but will soon return to morning twilight in the next several weeks.

A recent image from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft showing dark-bordered streaks caused by winds blowing around the dual craters’ walls. The dark areas are scoured of surface dust; the light zones are where the winds deposited their load of dust after being braked by the craters’ walls. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

Speaking of Mars, I came across some great images recently of wind streaks and dry ice “snowboard” trails on the Red Planet. Wind streaks can appear either dark or light-colored on Mars. When strong winds converge around craters and cliffs they can sweep away the lighter surface dust exposing the darker lava plains beneath. Craters can also slow down the winds, causing them to drop their loads of dust as light-colored streaks on the obstacle’s lee side. Sometimes both happen at the same time as in the photo above.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photo of “linear gullies,” which may be explained by slabs of dry ice gliding down the slopes of sand dunes.  Different in form from other streaks and gullies on Mars, they can extend up to a mile (2 km) and end abruptly in pits.  Scale in meters at left. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

While wind streaks make sense because of their earthly analogs, dry ice chunks gliding down the slopes of sand dunes on cushions of their own vaporizing gas sounds distinctly more alien. Yet that’s what NASA researchers believe is happening to create the zillions of narrow furrows seen along the slopes of some Martian sand dunes.

“I have always dreamed of going to Mars,” said Serina Diniega, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and lead author of a report published online by the journal Icarus. “Now I dream of snowboarding down a Martian sand dune on a block of dry ice.”


Dry ice gliding on sand dunes 

Carbon dioxide frost coats the dunes during the Martian winter which lasts about twice as long one on Earth. Over time, the ice accumulates and gets compressed into slabs which can break off and glide downhill during the spring season. As frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) changes directly from a solid to a gas on contact with the warmer sand, the gas pushes against the surface to create a cushion of air. The block rides the cushion all the way to the bottom where it continues to vaporize, forming a little pit at the end of the gully. Be sure to watch the short video – I think you’ll be delighted at the experiment using dry ice on sand dunes here on Earth.

Martian clay contains chemical believed crucial for life’s origin

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Electron microscope image showing the 700-million-year-old Martian clay veins containing boron (100 µm = one tenth of a millimeter) in a sample of the Martian meteorite MIL 090030 discovered in Antarctica. Credit: UHNAI

University of Hawaii astrobiologists have discovered high concentrations of boron within ancient clays in a Martian meteorite. Boron may sound boring but when it comes to life’s list of favorite ingredients, it’s crucial. When it hooks up with oxygen atoms to become ‘borate’, boron may have played an important role in the formation of RNA, one of the building blocks of life.

A thin section of the Martian meteorite MIL 090030 analyzed by the UHNAI researchers. Credit: UHNAI

Its more famous brother, DNA, is key in transmitting genetic information; RNA or ribonucleic acid is essential for the synthesis of proteins, which literally build our bodies from the ground up. If DNA is the master plan, RNA is the construction crew. At life’s beginning, RNA may even have served as a precursor to DNA.

RNA is similar to DNA but takes the shape of single, shorter strands. There are other chemical differences too. Credit: Wikipedia

“On Earth, borate-rich salt, sediment and clay deposits are relatively common, but such deposits had never previously been found on an extraterrestrial body,” according to the study.

The new research suggests that when life was getting started on Earth, borate could also have been concentrated in deposits on Mars. Borate is essential in stabilizing ribose, the R in RNA.

To read more on the subject, check out this synopsis of the original article.

Remember the Mars Opportunity Rover? Scientists have kept it busy for more than 9 years and 22 miles tracking from one fascinating landscape to another.

Esperance Rock on Mars is located along the rim of Endeavour Crater. Credit: NASA/ JPL-CalTech

The rover recently examined a patch of Martian soil named “Esperance” along the rim of Endeavour Crater. Analysis shows it appears to be clay once heavily altered by water. The newer rover, Curiosity, has also found clay minerals in Gale Crater and is now on the move to layered clay deposits in the crater’s central mound Mt. Sharp.

‘Einstein’ arcs across the sky above the W of Cassiopeia Saturday night June 8. Credit: Bob King

On a different topic, the International Space Station (ISS) still cruises by every evening and will continue making passes through early next week. If you haven’t seen it or ATV-4 (aka ‘Einstein’) yet, now’s the time.

I caught Einstein several nights ago during one of its passes across the northern sky. It moved fast – quicker than the ISS – and appeared as bright as a Big Dipper star. Docking with the station is expected on June 15, so you still have a few days. Go to Heavens Above, log in and click the ATV-4 and ISS links to find times when they fly over your house.

 

Curiosity rover sets sights on bumpy Cumberland rock

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This patch of bedrock, called “Cumberland,” has been selected as the second target for drilling by Curiosity. The rover will collect powdered material from inside the target rock and analyze it with laboratory instruments. Plans call for drilling in the lower right portion of the image. Scene is 10-inches (25 cm) across. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The Mars Curiosity rover team has selected a rock they’re naming Cumberland as the next drilling target for the rover. The new site lies about 9 feet (3 m) west of John Klein, where Curiosity’s bit drilled its “first bite” into Mars rock back in February.

This false-color map shows the area within Gale Crater on Mars, where the rover landed last August and the location where Curiosity collected its first drilled sample at the “John Klein” rock. An alluvial fan, or fan-shaped deposit where debris spread out downslope, has been highlighted in lighter colors for better viewing. On Earth, alluvial fans often are formed by water flowing downslope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Both John Klein and Cumberland belong to a geologic layer called “Sheepbed” a layer of mudstone that likely formed a couple billion years ago when streams carrying rocks and mud flowed down the wall of Gale Crater and deposited their burden in a broad alluvial fan. After the streams dried up, the material gradually became compacted into  rock; a couple billion year’s later a robotic emissary arrived to piece together the story using with a drill, oven and lasers.

Wide-angle view taken by one of Curiosity’s hazard-avoidance cameras yesterday May 10 shows a stretch of flat, broken rock in Yellowknife Bay, location of the John Kline and Cumberland rocks. Mt. Sharp looms in the distance. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

What we know so far is this: John Klein is made of fine-grained mudstone containing clay minerals, sulfate minerals and elements to afford a microbe a happy home. Scientists found sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon in the powder – all  This ancient wet environment, unlike some others on Mars, was not harshly oxidizing, acidic or extremely salty but close to neutral, comparable to many water environments on Earth.

Although Cumberland and John Klein are very similar – they’re flat (safe for drilling), criss-crossed by lighter-colored mineral veins and bumpy –  Cumberland appears to have more of the erosion-resistant granules that cause the surface bumps.

“The bumps are concretions, or clumps of minerals, which formed when water soaked the rock long ago,” according to a NASA press release.

Close-up of one of the drill holes in John Klein rock photographed on May 10. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Sometime in the next few days mission control will direct the rover to the new drilling site and retrieve and analyze a sample of the powdered rock. Not long after, Curiosity will set its sights on the main mission target – the clay-laced slopes of Mt. Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5 km) mountain inside the crater.

Although the rover’s prime mission lasts 2 years, its plutonium-powered generators have a minimum lifetime of 14 years. Provided Curiosity doesn’t hit a snag, we’ll be raking in the data and rock powder for years to come.

Bouncing boulders prove Mars still rocks

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Dotted streaks show the paths taken by boulders tumbling down the wall of a small crater on Mars. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sometimes you have to stop what you’re doing and share a cool photo with your friends. Once a week I get an e-mail announcement with photo updates from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a NASA probe orbiting Mars since 2006. MRO’s main mission is to map the planet’s surface in detail with its high resolution camera; it’s also been studying Mars’ atmosphere, climate and geology.

Cropped version of the photo above with a clearer view of track details. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The photo shows something I especially love about nature – how beautiful patterns evolve by natural happenstance. Here, boulders perched in an alcove within a crater wall tumbled down the slope until coming to rest near the crater’s floor. The long, dotted tracks help us picture each bounce as gravity did its magic and teased one boulder after another down the incline.

In this even tighter crop with enhanced contrast you can see individual boulders (dark dots) that came to rest near the crater’s floor. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Mass wasting” – the downhill movement of rocks and particles due to the force of gravity - is the technical term for what you’re seeing, and it’s as prevalent on Mars as on Earth. Landslides, avalanches and debris flows are familiar manifestations of mass wasting.

While no one’s absolutely sure what causes these slope streaks on Mars, they most likely form when fine-grained sand slides down the walls of craters. The sand lightens over time. Click to enlarge. Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech

On Mars two of the most common forms of the process are rock landslides and dust and sand avalanches, also called “slope streaks”. Any numbers of things can trigger an avalanche. Erosion from Martian winds, subsurface water flows or vaporizing ice can steepen and widen a crater’s wall, undercutting the rim where the boulders have been in repose for millions of years. When the tipping point is reached, gravity’s tug can nudge them over the edge and down the slope.

Marsquakes and weakening of rocks from the day-night freeze-thaw cycle also play important roles in jimmying boulders loose and setting them in motion.

A small stream cuts across a pebble beach along Lake Superior north of Grand Marais, Minn. last weekend. Fast-flowing water cut the banks so steeply, pebbles tumbled into the stream and were carried away into the lake. Photo: Bob King

Last weekend I came across a delightful example of mass wasting along the north shore of Lake Superior. While crossing a pebble beach I was stopped in my tracks by a 4-foot-wide stream slicing across the strand as it hurried toward the lake. The current cut so quickly through the loose rock, pebbles along its banks tumbled continuously into the fast-moving water and were swept into the lake.

Mars breathes sigh of relief as comet collision odds drop

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Comet C/2013 A1 will pass only 68,000 miles from Mars on October 19, 2014. At the time, the comet should be bright enough to see from Earth with binoculars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Martians can finally breathe easier. No, we haven’t terraformed the planet yet, but the chances of Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) hitting the Mars have just dropped from 1 in 8,000 to about 1 in 20,000 after new observations further refined the comet’s orbit. Interestingly, the closest approach has tightened a bit to 68,000 miles. No matter what the view from the planet’s surface should be spectacular.

Comet C/2013 A1 will shine around 8th magnitude from Earth and be visible right alongside Mars low in the southwestern sky on the BIG DAY. Created with Chris Marriott’s SkyMap software

If only you and I could be there. Closest approach happens at 1:51 p.m. Central Time October 19, 2014 on Mars’ sunward side. Since a comet’s coma (temporary atmosphere formed from ice and dust vaporized by the sun) can measure many thousands of miles across, there’s a slight possibility it could graze Mars’ atmosphere. Dust might then flare as meteors when heated by friction with the air.

The fantastic coma and pale blue tail of 17P/Comet Holmes on Nov. 4, 2007. Credit: Ivan Eder

One of the largest comas belonged to Comet Holmes. Astronomers don’t know for sure whether Holmes experienced an explosive event from within or was struck by a meteoroid, but it suddenly brightened by half a million times in October 2007. Within a week, the comet had released so much gas and dust, its coma ballooned to 869,900 miles or about 5,000 miles larger than the sun!

Our current comet celebrity is C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS making appearances in both evening and morning (shown here) skies. Image made on April 14, 2014 in the northeastern sky at the start of dawn. Photo: Bob King

We’re not saying C/2013 A1 will even approach those dimensions, but it’s possible that dust from its coma might eventually drift toward Mars to create a meteor shower. My wish would be for NASA and the European Space Agency to point the rover and orbiting satellite cameras at the comet sometime during the flyby. Comet usually start to develop tails about the time they cross the orbit of Mars. The thought of seeing one arcing above a Mars landscape gives me the chills.

How to get to Mars in 1 minute and 7 seconds

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Mars photographed with the C2 coronagraph on SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) earlier this morning. SOHO uses a disk to block the sun’s light so astronomers can study its atmosphere called the corona. Mars appears next to the sun only because it’s in the same line of sight. The planet’s actually in the distant background. Credit: NASA/ESA

On April 17 the Red Planet and Earth will line up on opposite sides of the sun, an event called solar conjunction. Other than not being able to see Mars because it’s hidden in the solar glare, the event has one real consequence for earthlings. We’ll explore that in a minute. Let’s just say that since the two planets now sit at opposite ends of the seesaw, Mars is about as far away as it gets, winking at Earth across a distance of 225.7 million miles. Compare that to 35 million when we’re closest.

That’s OUT THERE. Even light, traveling at 186,000 miles per second, takes 20 minutes to cross the gulf separating Earth from Mars. That means a 40 minute round trip for radio communications between the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers and mission control.

Screen grab from the “How Far is it to Mars?” site that give you a taste for how far the moon and Mars are from Earth. Click to go there. Credit: David Paliwoda and Jesse Williams

How would you like to get a feel for that distance? Understanding that time is precious, we’ll go easy on you by making the journey when Mars is closest to Earth. Normally it would take about 150 days to travel to the Red Planet using current technology. We’ll arrive quicker by accelerating to 3 times the speed of light. Even at that pace, you might be surprised how long it takes to arrive. Click HERE or on the image above to take the free journey. Bon voyage!

Curiosity drilled two holes in the “John Klein” rock in early February and gathered the powdered tailings to analyze its composition. The holes are each 2/3″ or 16mm across. On March 26, the rover used its powerful ChemCam laser to repeatedly zap the drilled powder, creating a row of tiny pits. The vaporized rock emitted light that was analyzed by Curiosity to determine its makeup. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Let’s return to the consequences of a Mars solar conjunction. As described in this earlier blog, Mars’ close alignment with the sun does affect our ability to communicate with the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. Signals sent from Earth pass directly along the sun’s line of sight en route to Mars where they could be corrupted by solar radiation storms and electrified particles in the sun’s corona.

Interesting white rocks scattered about where Curiosity is stationed in Yellowknife Bay in Gale Crater. Notice how rounded some of the other pebbles are – possibly from water erosion. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

It’s no big deal if bits of information go missing in a transmission from Curiosity, but if a bad command were sent from Earth, it might cause the robot to seize up or do damage to itself. To avoid potential problems, NASA has suspended communications for the remainder of April. Each day, Curiosity sends daily beeps to Earth telling mission control “I’m still here.”

Cool “aerial” view of Mt. Sharp inside Gale Crater (where Curiosity landed) taken by the orbiting Mars Odyssey satellite. The layering in the mountain at upper left may have been made when sediments were deposited by flowing waters. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

Mars-approaching comet may alter Indian space mission plans

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Artists illustration of the Indian Mars orbiter Mangalyaan. Credit: ISRO

Call it an unfortunate coincidence. Indian scientists are concerned their Mars probe may arrive about the same time a comet blasts past the Red Planet.

There’s worry that the methane in the comet’s tail will give false readings on one of the probe’s instruments used to detect the gas in the Martian atmosphere. Methane, while intimately associated with living things like cows, people and bacteria, can also be produced by chemical reactions between water and rocks.

Comet C/2013 A1 is little more than a very faint fuzzy spot right now but should become visible in binoculars in 2014. This photo was taken on March 13, 2013. Credit: Joseph Brimacombe

Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring was discovered on January 3 this year by Robert McNaught of Australia. Once an orbit had been calculated, astronomers discovered that the comet would pass only about 93,000 miles (150,000 km) from Mars on October 19, 2014.

Photo illustration of a comet passing near Mars in 2014. Credit: Comet R1 McNaught by Michael Jaeger; Mars photo by Emil Kraaikamp; illustration: Bob King

The comet itself could be anywhere from a few miles to a few dozen miles across, but the tail and atmosphere it develops from heating by the sun could easily span hundreds of thousands of miles. Comet tails and their fuzzy shrouds called comas are made of dust and vaporized ices of water, methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide.

While the possibility of A1 hitting Mars is remote, the rarefied dust and gases in the comet’s head and tail could brush the planet’s atmosphere as the comet speeds by at some 35 miles (56 km) a second.

Orbit of Comet C/2013 shows its close approach to Mars in October 2014. Credit: Carl Hergenrother

Mangalyaan - Hindi of ‘Mars craft’ – is the first interplanetary mission of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The probe will study the composition of the Martian atmosphere, photograph the surface and map the planet’s minerals from orbit.

With an expected launch on November 27 and 9-month trip time, Mangalyaan  will arrive in late August before the comet makes its closest approach.

There’s talk, according to a recent article in the online India Daily News and Analysis, that some ISRO mission planners are considering alternative launch dates to prevent their methane-detector from giving false readings.

While I’m only an amateur astronomer it would seem to me that having the orbiter in place before the comet arrives would be a real boon. It could begin sampling atmospheric gases and then record the affects – if any – that the Siding Spring comet might introduce. In effect,  Mangalyan would serve as both Mars AND comet probe. Possibility it could even be re-directed for a time to photograph the comet from a spectacularly close distance.

We’ll wait to see what happens. Astronomers are keeping a close eye on this comet and refining exactly how close a pass it will make to the Red Planet. Stay tuned.

Mars gigapixel panorama will blow your socks off

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A screen grab from the new Mars Curiosity panorama shows Mt. Sharp rising to a peak inside Gale Crater. Click image to explore the interactive scene. Credit: NASA-JPL / Andrew Bodrov

Busy cooking this Easter Sunday?  If you haven’t seen the new gigapixel panorama of the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater, I strongly encourage to put down the ham, click the photo and begin your journey. The best part is that you don’t just look at it – you EXPLORE it with the touch of your mouse. This thing’s totally interactive. Select any part of the image and press the mouse button, then drag and travel. Scrolling zooms the view in and out. The level of detail is beyond belief. Once you start looking around, you might get stuck at the computer for a while.

Andrew Bodrov

Andrew Bodrov, the creator of the panorama, has been stitching pictures together for over 12 years. Although he’s mostly worked with earthly vistas, he doesn’t limit himself to one planet. Bodrov’s enjoys stitching NASA images to create immersive virtual reality panoramas of Mars including this earlier one of Curiosity’s landing site.

Panning around his panoramas is the closest we’ll get – for the time being – of standing on Mars ourselves.

Curiosity is a photojournalist’s dream with 17 different cameras. Left and right mastcam photos were used for the panorama. The one on the left uses a telephoto lens (100mm); the right camera is a 34mm wide angle. Bodrov’s panorama contains a mix of both but mostly telephoto images. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This latest panorama was compiled from 407 pictures taken over 13 days on Mars (Mars solar days 136-149) with Curiosity’s high-resolution mast cameras or mastcams. The two 2-megapixel cameras are mounted on a mast 7 feet above the ground and take both color images and video.

Earlier panorama of Curiosity at its landing site. Click to visit. Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech / Andrew Bodrov

Altogether the image contains 4 billion pixels or picture elements, giving it a sweep and resolution that will, well, blow you over. Now that the Easter ham’s in the oven, sit down for a few minutes and enjoy a well-deserved Mars vacation

Concealed planets exposed plus it’s spring break on Mars

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The sun and its pack of planets photographed earlier today by the coronagraph aboard the SOHO observatory. The sun (white circle) is blocked by an opaque disk so astronomers can study the streaky solar atmosphere called the corona. Credit: NASA / ESA

Half the planets have gone into hiding. Mercury is too low in the dawn sky for northern hemisphere skywatchers, and Mars, Venus and Uranus are gathered around the sun concealed by its glare. Only Jupiter and Saturn remain available for our viewing pleasure.

Still, it’s hard to keep planets hidden away when you’ve got the eyes of the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on your side. SOHO orbits around a stable region of space called the L1 Langrangian point where the gravity of Earth balances that of the sun.

SOHO orbits about a million miles ahead of Earth in line with the sun in a small “halo orbit” around the L1 Lagrangian point. From this vantage point it keeps the sun and Earth in view 24/7. Credit: Office of Naval Research

From this prime observing spot, scientists use SOHO’s cameras to study the sun in many wavelengths or colors of light. Special devices called coronagraphs block the overly-bright solar disk with a metal stop to allow viewing of the sun’s outer atmosphere or corona. They also show other objects in the field of view like comets and the current gang of planets – Uranus, Venus and Mars.

Since the planets are very near one another, lots of interesting lineups will happen in the coming days. Venus reaches superior conjunction on March 28 (tomorrow) when it lines up on the opposite side of the sun from Earth. Six hours later it’s only one degree (two full moon diameters) below Uranus. An hour after, Uranus is in conjunction with the sun. Then on April 6-7 Venus and Mars will be in conjunction just half a degree apart. Is this beginning to sound like a barn dance?

One thing to remember about conjunctions – the planets involved are not physically close; they only appear to be because we see them in the same line of sight. If you’d like to watch all these interesting encounters, check out SOHO’s latest coronagraph image.

Approximately every 26 months, Mars passes almost directly behind the sun from Earth’s perspective. During this time, NASA will halt communications with the two rovers. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For us, Mars’ proximity to the sun is interesting but inconsequential. Not so for the Curiosity mission. On April 17 the planet is in conjunction on the opposite side of the sun from Earth. From our perspective, Mars will appear extremely close to the sun’s brilliant disk. Radiation from solar flares and high-speed subatomic particles in the sun’s corona can disrupt radio transmissions between the two planets during close alignments like this one. To prevent compromised radio commands from reaching either Curiosity or the older Opportunity rover, mission controllers will temporarily suspend transmissions from April 9 to 26.

Wide angle view of Yellowknife Bay taken by one of Curiosity’s hazard avoidance cameras on March 27, 2013. The rover recently resumed science operations after recovery from a computer glitch. Credit: NASA/ JPL

Communications from Mars to Earth will also be reduced. To stay in touch, Curiosity will send daily beeps to Earth. Meanwhile both rovers and orbiting Mars satellites will continue science operations. Data gathered will be stored and then beamed to Earth in early May. The rovers’ spring break will be tame by earthly standards; both will stay put during the interval to prevent any shenanigans.

The bright star Sirius and planet Jupiter perform a balancing act on either side of Orion’s Belt this month and next. This may shows the sky facing southwest around 8:30 p.m. in late March.  Maps created with Stellarium

Did I mention there are still two great planets out at night? Jupiter stands high in the west-southwest at nightfall. It’s the brightest object in that direction. Saturn comes up later around 11 o’clock in the southeast about one extended fist to the lower right of Spica. The full moon will be near Spica tonight and Saturn on Thursday night. Much to see for all!

The full moon will swing by both Spica (tonight) and the planet Saturn tomorrow night. This map shows the sky facing southeast around 11:30 p.m.

Curiosity finds Mars has the right stuff for life

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Curiosity drilled into Sheepbed rock layer, once part of an ancient stream bed on Mars, and identified carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, hydrogen, phosphorus and oxygen – some of the key chemical ingredients for life. Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech

Take a look at that rock face. It measures about 8 inches (20 cm) across and was probably deposited as sediment in a Martian stream millions of years ago. Look more closely and you’ll spot veins filled with a white material. Scientists think the rock was later fractured. Mineral-laden waters flowed through the cracks, depositing their burden and filling the cracks.

Sample of drilled rock in Curiosity’s scoop. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Last month the Curiosity rover extended its robotic arm and drilled into a fine-grained, sedimentary rock layer called Sheepbed in Mars’ Gale Crater. A sample of the powder was delivered to the rover’s onboard chem lab, analyzed and found to contain very familiar-sounding elements -  a soup of carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Living forms love and need them all to thrive. Why are these elements so important? I’m glad you asked:

* Sulfur – certain kinds of bacteria thrive by breaking down sulfur compounds to produce their “food”. Sulfur is also found in amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins. You, me and everything alive are built from proteins.

* Phosphorus – an important component of our DNA and RNA and also an essential element in a chemical compound called ATP. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is used to transfer energy inside the cell and metabolize nutrients to create energy.

* Nitrogen – another essential ingredient of amino acids. Bacteria living in the roots of plants take atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into a form plants can use so they can thrive. Animals and humans get their nitrogen in turn from plants or from other animals that eat plants.

Human red blood cells. Cells transport energy and metabolize nutrients using water (hydrogen and oxygen), oxygen and phosphorus among other elements.

* Carbon – is the basis for all organic life as we know it. It’s an essential part of our DNA and RNA. Carbon has the unique ability among atoms to bond to almost any molecule. We get the carbon we need through plants (or other plant-eating animals) which take carbon dioxide in the air and convert it into the carbon molecule called “glucose” (food).

* Hydrogen – hydrogen happily latches on to oxygen to form water (H2O) which is another life essential.

* Oxygen – a must-have for respiration. It “oxidizes” or “burns” foods to create energy. Most life forms on Earth require it to live.

The rock also contained clays and sulfates, evidence that the materials that it was originally deposited by running water, perhaps a stream, and later solidified into rock. Better yet, the water was neither acidic nor alkaline but “neutral” much like freshwater on Earth. Indeed you could have slaked your thirst with it had you been around then.

False-color map of Curiosity’s landing site in Gale Crater. The probe landed near an alluvial fan deposited by water flowing downhill from the crater’s rim. Curiosity drilled into rock in the “John Klein” outcrop in the Sheepbed rock layer. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Taken together, these signs point to a wetter, warmer Mars in the distant past, and a planet that could have supported life. Today it’s a cold, dry desert with air less than 1% as thick as Earth’s and toasted by toxic ultraviolet light from the sun.

While no complex organic molecules like amino acids, fats and sugars have been found so far by the roving robot, all the basic ingredients are there in Gale Crater to create them.