How bugs in a humble truffle could give us a taste of life on Mars
THE picture above could be mistaken for a backdrop to the latest sci-fi blockbuster film but it is the sharpest picture yet taken of the spartan surface of Mars.
Nasa’s Curiosity rover captured the astonishing image as scientists revealed it has potentially found something more earth-shattering.
It was announced that molecules had been detected which suggest the possibility of early life on the Red Planet.
Traces of organic “thiophenes” found on Earth in coal, crude oil and white truffles have been discovered in the harsh Martian soil, according to Washington
State University astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch.
He said: “We identified several biological pathways for thiophenes that seem more likely than chemical ones, but we still need proof.
“If you find thiophenes on Earth, then you would think they are biological but on Mars, of course, the bar to prove that has to be quite a bit higher.”
He and Jacob Heinz, at the Berlin Institute of Technology, believe meteor impacts could create the compound because of the huge pressures involved. But they think the biological process is more likely, suggesting that bacteria could have existed when Mars was warmer and wetter more than three billion years ago.
The rover’s findings have provided plenty of clues but it cannot study larger fragments of molecules which hold more information.
However, the European Space Agency’s Martian rover, the Rosalind Franklin – expected to be on its way in July – will be better equipped to take a more detailed look.