Finally, scientists have found intriguing organic molecules on Mars

originally posted by: jeep3r
a reply to: dug88

...

I see a pattern emerging. Are they just being "scientific" or is there more to it? IMO this dripfeeding is a bit suspicious. This being ATS, I just thought someone needed to point this out.

Nah, you just don't understand how science works.

originally posted by: odzeandennz
What's curious is how NASA's electronics and metals and soft materials on the Rover manage to withstand -130°C or have an oven to heat samples to 800°C without a massive heat exchanger-...

What is so curious about it? Ovens are typically insulated, even here on earth.

a reply to: dug88

Im about to release some organic moleculss of my own.

Maybe NASA can analyze that.

Nice find, it will be interesting to see what the Martian caves reveal 👀

originally posted by: Krakatoa

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: Krakatoa
The question I have is, are there organic molecules that can ONLY be produced by life and NOT by any other means? If so, THAT is what they should be searching for in these samples now. If found that would make it definitive that life was/is on Mars.

Thiophenes are a carbon ring with a sulphur atom
en.wikipedia.org...

Aliphates are alkane, alkene and other carbon ring based molecules:
en.wikipedia.org...

The ambiguity is that these are the simpler molecules that could be created by both natural and organic processes. If it were organic, then it would mean that there was some kind of life on Mars that decomposed millions of years ago. But there were no amino acid chains found. Those require Nitrogen.

But that does not answer my question does it? Both of those, as you stated, can be created by either process.

Heating the mud to 800C would have "cooked" anything that had complex hydrocarbons like the "cracking process" used to break down crude oil into diesel, petrol and methane.

en.wikipedia.org...(chemistry)

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

If they did prove that primitive life was on Mars, then they would probably risk losing funding and have to discontinue the mission.

originally posted by: Krakatoa
The question I have is, are there organic molecules that can ONLY be produced by life and NOT by any other means? If so, THAT is what they should be searching for in these samples now. If found that would make it definitive that life was/is on Mars.

There is life everywhere even in space. It does not have to be like life on earth to be life.

Just because a molecule is organic does not mean that it is made by living things. In fact, many of the newly spotted molecules are poisonous to organisms on Earth, Hollis said. But one of the molecules found in Sagittarius B2(N), called acetamide, contains a type of chemical bond important for linking together amino acids, the molecular building blocks of proteins.

A two-year survey of enormous interstellar dust clouds has turned up eight organic molecules in two different regions of space. One is a stellar nursery awash in light while the other is a cold, starless void.

"Finding eight [organic] molecules in the space of two years is quite remarkable," said study leader Jan Hollis of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Life molecules The newly discovered molecules are made up of 6 to 11 atoms each and are classified as organic because they contain carbon. Five of the molecules were discovered in Sagittarius B2(N), a star-forming dust cloud located 26,000 light-years from Earth near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. This stellar nursery is the largest known repository of complex interstellar molecules. The other three molecules were found in the Taurus Molecular Cloud (TMC-1), located only 450 light-years away. TMC-1 is starless; it is cold and dark and has a temperature of only 10 degrees above absolute zero. "The discovery of these large organic molecules in the coldest regions of the interstellar medium has certainly changed the belief that large organic molecules would only have their origins in hot molecular cores," said study team member Anthony Remijan of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). "It has forced us to rethink the paradigms of interstellar chemistry

www.space.com...

originally posted by: odzeandennz
What's curious is how NASA's electronics and metals and soft materials on the Rover manage to withstand -130°C or have an oven to heat samples to 800°C without a massive heat exchanger-...

Well, they did design it very well. www.planetary.org...

The heaters are made of additive-manufactured ceramics: ceramics.org...

I used to hunt these kind of stories of NASA. now I don't care if they find a dead poodle over there ...

a reply to: SeaWorthy


I know I read that article upon seeing it quoted...


indeed, here's the headline:

Organic Molecules Found in Diverse Space Places
By Ker Than | August 8, 2006 06:16am ET

2006 …. I was guessing closer to 2012... but dang, 2006... I think I posted parts of that article on a
Post about Panspermia





as for the possible organic molecule on Mars... the Aquatic organics scattered on Mars likely came with the deluge of water that flooded one hemisphere of Mars as result of the EPH Exploding Planet Hypothesis being an actuality...Earth itself orbited into the Year-Long water debris path left over from the Mars flooding event (as Mars was once a mere Moon of the once Water Planet famously known as Vulcan & now known as the Asteroid Belt)

originally posted by: odzeandennz
What's curious is how NASA's electronics and metals and soft materials on the Rover manage to withstand -130°C or have an oven to heat samples to 800°C without a massive heat exchanger-...

You should also have a look at what heat & temperature are they are not the same.