New Guys Next Door?

Ice on a Martian Crater

Meteors that have blasted off Mars have shown indications of what the early Martian atmosphere was like. They provide evidence that Mars was wet enough for life to exist. There have been 69 meteors found in our Solar System that originated from Mars. These meteorites show the presence of sulfur on the Martians surface. This discovery provides evidence that Mars once has been warm enough to allow water to exist in the surface by the effect of sulfur dioxide.

In contrast to Mars, on Earth it produces the opposite effect: it has a net cooling effect. This discovery shows how different these two planets are, but also the capacity of both planets to sustain living creatures. These asteroids bring insight to the evolution of Mars, and the possibility of having extraterrestrial neighbors.

By: Curiosity Rover Blog; Chm1046 Honors Project: Chemistry Group: Denisse Ziani and Stephanie Galdeano

“The Mastcam”

We have received precious data lately from the Curiosity rover that involve a lot of visual information. One of the latest installments from the rover involves a picture of earth from the Martian surface. This brings up some questions about the camera behind such high quality pictures: the Mast Camera aka Mastcam.

It is a system based on prior Mars Exploration rovers such as the ones that landed in Mars around 2004. The current piece consists of two camera systems mounted on a mast extending upwards from the Curiosity’s body. Some of the new capabilities of the Mastcam that distinguish it from the previous rovers are: can take high definition videos at 10 frames per second; it has an internal data buffer that can manage to store thousands of images or several hours of high definition video footage for transmission to Earth; it also processes the images independently of the rover’s central processing unit, etc.

Further, the two lenses of this camera are designed with different purposes, for example, one of the two cameras has a moderate-resolution lens while the other has a high-resolution lens to study everything that is far from the rover.

The Mastcam is being used to study the Martian landscape, rocks, and soils; to view frost and weather phenomena; and to support the driving and sampling operations of the rover, etc.

By: Curiosity Rover Blog CHEM 1045 Engineering Team - Aldo García, Andrés Villalobos, Resni Cruz, and Ahmed Pla

Water on Mars!

The image above is of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite before it was installed in the Curiosity rover. This instrument analyzed soil samples on Mars and discovered water traces.

NASA's Curiosity rover has done it again; Curiosity has found some more interesting samples on our beautiful Red Planet, water! Water has never seemed so exciting and it only gets better, Curiosity's SAM discovered that about two percent of Mars's surface is made up of water. Aside from discovering water, Curiosity analyzed a small sample of soil from a sandy area, known as Rocknest, and heated the sample to over 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The sample proved to contain chlorine, oxygen and carbonated materials which form in the presence of water. So what does this all mean? Well, Curiosity found several elements that are essential to life and now water. Mars could have once supported life, all we need if evidence from Curiosity.

“Methane and a sign of Life in the Red Planet”

This picture shows a lab demonstration of the measurement chamber inside the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, an instrument that is part of the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation on NASA's Curiosity rover

Currently, NASA’s Curiosity rover has uncovered the fact that the Martian environment is lacking methane, even though previous research indicated positive detections. After extensive experiments in the Martian environment this gas has not been found, which as of now is of great interest for the scientists because of its relation to the idea of potential signs of life. According to Michael Meyer, NASA’s lead scientist for Mars exploration, “this important result will help direct our efforts to examine the possibility of life on Mars”. From October of 2012 through June of this year, the Curiosity analyzed the atmosphere six times. Given the fact that no gas has been detected, scientists estimate that there is no more 1.3 part per billion of methane within the atmosphere. Previous reports showed concentrations up to 45 parts per billion, which was what originally sparked the idea of a biological source on Mars, on the other hand, current experiments have shown otherwise. The University of Michigan, released an article where one the authors affirms that according with these methane measurements, “there is no mechanism, whether it be biological, geological or simply the degradation of organic material from meteorites” to support huge amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Still, the Curiosity rover remains studying the Red Planet, in hopes of finding some ground breaking evidence leading to the assertion of a habitable environment.

By: Adrian Gonzalez, Maribel Alberto, and Mileidy Gonzalez

What Happened to Mars's Atmosphere?

According to NASA's Curiosity rover data, Mars has an atmosphere that is only a fraction of the size that it could have once been. As of today, Mars's thin atmosphere is known to be enriched with heavy carbon and oxygen isotopes, measured by the rover's SAM suite, Sample Analysis at Mars, in several samples of the Martian atmosphere. How did Mars's atmosphere decrease in size? The exact answer is unknown but there is concrete evidence that said atmosphere was once much thicker: water. Because the Martian atmosphere is currently too thin, liquid water can't be present on the Red Planet. However, there is evidence that there once was liquid water on our neighboring planet and thus gives us the certainty that at one given moment the atmosphere was much thicker. Meteorites were also analyzed and indicated that the loss of Mar's atmosphere could have began around the first billion years of the planet's 4.6 billion year existence. Although the Curiosity rover can't measure the exact loss of atmospheric presence, a future mission to Mars will be able to do so. The MAVEN, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, will bring data to understand the changes Mars's has undergone through the centuries and perhaps allow us to know our neighboring planet a little better.

Neighbors on Mars

The samples examined by Curiosity above are from different parts of Mars, the left “Wopmay” from Endurance Crater and the right “sheepbay” from Gale Crater.

Perhaps the thought of a human once living on Mars could be an idea that is too far-fetched, but could nothing have ever thrived in our neighboring planet? The Curiosity rover sent to Mars has clearly proven that, at one point in time, we might have had extraterrestrial neighbors, although these may have only been microbes. Curiosity collected a rock sample in Gale Crater and scientists were able to identify some of the key chemical ingredients for life: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Moreover, Curiosity has also been able to discover the end of ancient river system in the Yellowknife Bay area it was exploring and, in Gale Crater, fine-grained mud-stone proves multiple periods of wet conditions, nodules and veins. Now we have more reason to believe we might have never been alone in the universe, the challenge that lies ahead for Curiosity is to prove that we still aren't alone.

Microbial Life at Mars

Self-portrait of the Curiosity of the Rover on Mars NASA Photo

Mars Curiosity Rover has confirmed that Mars was at some point warm and wet enough to support microbial life. The experiment took place on February 8, 2013, and it consisted on Curiosity drilling from a rock on the Gale Crater. A gray mineral was extracted, which included clay minerals. Other chemical elements such as sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, among others (common on Earth’s microbial activity) were found. Michael Meyer (lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program), and John Grotzinger (Curiosity’s chief mission scientist) have both concluded that Mars was able to support life at some point, almost 3 billion years ago, when life emerged on Earth.

By Biology Group 1: Maribel Alberto, Mileidy Gonzalez, and Adrian Gonzalez

Perchlorate: the threat to red hope

In soils with high concentrations of chloride it is converted to perchlorate in the presence of sunlight and/or ultraviolet light. This chemical compound is being the center of a big controversy now days, when human society is decided to find out if we are alone or not in this universe. It happens that perchlorate seems to be widespread in Mars dirt, a condition that will cause a lot of troubles in future space missions (tripulated or not) for different reasons. The most important of this reasons is related with the fact that this chemical compound (ClO4) is a salt comprised, derived from Cl and O2 and from perchloric acid, with a great solubility (except for compound KClO4). In Earth, is rare to find perchlorate in its natural form (except for the Atacama desert, and some other places in US, but with a very low density), but when it is artificially created it can be used in rocket fuel and also as part of thyroid diseases treatments. This is a good application of this compound here in our planet, but out there, the history is quite complex.

In Mars, mixtures of perchlorates with organic compounds are very reactive, a chemical characteristic that interferes with the hunting for possible traces of Martian life. As part of its mission, mars rover Curiosity heats up scoops of red planet dirt to test for organic carbon compounds (the building blocks of life in Earth). That heat can cause perchlorates in soil samples to set off a chemical reaction that destroys organics, as researches had discovered. “This may change the way we search for organics in the future on Mars” said Daniel Galvin, an astrobiology’s at NASA’S Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.

The Curiosity analysis system uses an instrument that breaks soil down into its chemical components and measures the concentration of each type of molecule, but when CLO4 is heated above 392 Fahrenheit it release pure oxygen and this causes organic molecules in samples to combust into CO2. For now, this is just another obstacle, but not the end of the story about looking sign of life in Mars. “Organic compounds can be analyzed if they stay preserved inside a more heat resistance material, or if the molecules could possibly be detected before the break down of the “killer salt”, Galvin said. Once more, we should remember that hope is the last thing we loose, and this is applicable even in nature and science.

Gannon, M. “Toxic Mars Chemical Throws wrench into search for read planet life” retrieved from www.space.com on October 2013.

By: Yahima Balboa, Vanessa Manso and Ana Diego

Methane is the Answer!

Everyone has been dying to know whether our closest planetary neighbor in the solar system, Mars, has ever been inhabited or could someday be. Although key chemical elements needed life have been found, no evidence seems to give us a concrete answer. However, we might be getting closer to the truth!

Previous data indicated positive detections of methane. However, NASA's Curiosity rover has recently analyzed atmospheric samples six times, by it's Tunable Laser Spectrometer, and has not been detecting methane.

So what does this mean?

Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor says "Methane is persistent. It would last for hundreds of years in the Martian atmosphere.” This leads us to believe that if at once there was life on Mars, it was far too long ago.

Curiosity has provided us with evidence of sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon on Mars, along with evidence of an ancient river system. But now appears to lackmethane. Thus, we can conclude that perhaps there is no life as of now but, has this always been the case?

Michael Meyer, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration, reminds us that not all terrestrial microbes are methane-producing. We remain with no clear answer to the "life on Mars" question but everyday we find out something new about our beloved Mars.

By: Maria Blancas, Konstantinos Kaliptsoglou, and Adam Tuchinsky