Scientists have suspected for a while now that Mars hosted life in the distant past, and since we’ve landed the Curiosity rover we’ve only found evidence in support of this theory. The most recent advancement in this field is the discovery of nitrates in the rock on Mars. Nitrates exist on Earth and are crucial to organic life. Planetary scientists had been hoping to discover organic carbon, the type or carbon molecules that can be used and produced by living organisms, but nitrates are just as astounding a discovery.

 

Nitrogen is a key component in DNA, RNA and amino acids. Jennifer Stern is a planetary geochemist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and a science team member for the Mars Science Laboratory mission, as Curiosity’s mission is formally known. Stern states, “People want to follow the carbon, but in many ways nitrogen is just as important a nutrient for life…Life runs on nitrogen as much as it runs on carbon.”

 

Rock samples were pulled from three sites on Mars near the original landing site: aeolian deposits from Rocknest and mudstone deposits from John Klein and Cumberland. On its way to Mount Sharp, a 3-mile high mound in the Gale crater that was thought to be good place to hunt past life with its moist clay layers, Curiosity made pit stops at these three sites where it took the rock samples. The detour proved fortunate as the mudstone deposits from John Klein and Cumberland turned up a large variety of chemicals and water-altered minerals which indicate it could have been a prime spot for life in the past.