Nitrogen: Yet Another Building Block for Life Found on Mars
Source: Discovery News
Nitrogen: Yet Another Building Block for Life Found on Mars
MAR 24, 2015 07:00 PM ET // BY IRENE KLOTZ
Add nitrogen to the list of potential biological ingredients on Mars sniffed out by NASA’s Curiosity rover.
In a paper in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that Curiosity has found oxidized nitrogen-bearing compounds in samples collected from three sites in Gale Crater, the 96-mile-wide basin the rover has been exploring since August 2012.
“The samples contained more nitrogen than could be accounted for from known terrestrial instrument sources, with the bulk of the nitrogen in the form of nitric oxide,” scientists wrote in a summary of their research.
The team theorizes that nitric oxide may have been released from decomposing nitrates as the sample was heated for analysis.
“Terrestrial life requires a fixed form of nitrogen for synthesis of crucial biomolecules, and the discovery of indigenous fixed nitrogen in Martian rocks and sediments has implications for the past habitability potential of Mars,” the researchers noted.
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Read more: http://news.discovery.com/space/nitrogen-yet-another-building-block-for-life-found-on-mars-150324.htm
