Organic Molecules Revealed in the Glen Torridon Region of Gale crater, Mars, by the SAM Instrument on Board Curiosity
Maeva Millan
(1)
,
Amy Williams
(2)
,
Amy Mcadam
(3)
,
Jennifer Eigenbrode
(3)
,
Andrew Steele
(4)
,
Caroline Freissinet
(5)
,
Daniel Patrick Glavin
(3)
,
Cyril Szopa
(5)
,
Arnaud Buch
(6)
,
James M. T. Lewis
(7)
,
Greg Wong
(8)
,
Christopher H. House
(9)
,
Brad Sutter
(10)
,
Ophélie Mcintosh
(5)
,
Alexander Bryk
(11)
,
Heather Franz
(3)
,
Chad I. Pozarycki
(3)
,
Jennifer Stern
(3)
,
Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez
(12)
,
Paul Archer
(10)
,
Valerie Fox
(13)
,
Kristen Bennett
(14)
,
Samuel Teinturier
(3)
,
Charles Malespin
(3)
,
Sarah Johnson
(1)
,
Paul Mahaffy
(3)
1
GU -
Georgetown University [Washington]
2 UF - University of Florida [Gainesville]
3 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
4 Carnegie Institution for Science
5 PLANETO - LATMOS
6 LGPM - Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux
7 Howard University
8 Penn State - Pennsylvania State University
9 Penn Museum - University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
10 Jacobs Technology ESCG
11 UC Berkeley - University of California [Berkeley]
12 UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México = National Autonomous University of Mexico
13 UMN - University of Minnesota [Twin Cities]
14 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
2 UF - University of Florida [Gainesville]
3 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
4 Carnegie Institution for Science
5 PLANETO - LATMOS
6 LGPM - Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux
7 Howard University
8 Penn State - Pennsylvania State University
9 Penn Museum - University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
10 Jacobs Technology ESCG
11 UC Berkeley - University of California [Berkeley]
12 UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México = National Autonomous University of Mexico
13 UMN - University of Minnesota [Twin Cities]
14 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
Maeva Millan
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1033161
- IdHAL : maeva-millan
Andrew Steele
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1240946
- ORCID : 0000-0001-9643-2841
Caroline Freissinet
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 183739
- IdHAL : caroline-freissinet
- ORCID : 0000-0002-6528-330X
- IdRef : 152939725
Cyril Szopa
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 175829
- IdHAL : cyril-szopa
- ORCID : 0000-0002-0090-4056
- IdRef : 068537921
Christopher H. House
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1157323
- ORCID : 0000-0002-4926-4985
Résumé
Organic molecules, essential to life as we know it, are being searched on Mars by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on board the Curiosity rover, to better understand the past and/or present habitability of Mars. Terrestrial clay minerals are known for their organic preservation and can be key indicators of past habitable environments. The martian Glen Torridon region in Gale crater is specifically abundant in clay minerals, and to evaluate its organic preservation potential, 7 rock samples were collected and characterized with SAM. The SAM results indicate the presence of various organic compounds, including new sulfur-containing and ring-structured organics and the highest abundance of sulfur organics observed to date, which are likely indigenous to Mars. A portion of these S-bearing molecules may also be related to the presence of chemical reagents carried in SAM, making attribution to a definitive source challenging. Nevertheless, these new SAM results confirm that ancient organic matter is preserved in the clay mineral sediments of Glen Torridon but its origin (meteoritic, abiotic or biotic) has yet to be established