Ancient Organics Discovered on Mars

Ancient Organics Discovered on Mars

Since arriving at Mars in 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover has drilled into rocks in search of organics - molecules containing carbon. Organics are the building blocks of all life on Earth, though they can also come from non-living sources. The surface of Mars readily destroys these molecules, making them difficult to detect. Now, Curiosity has discovered ancient organics that have been preserved in rocks for billions of years. This finding helps scientists better understand the habitability of early Mars, and it paves the way for future missions to the Red Planet. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12951Graphics from the NASA-TV broadcast of this discovery are available at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12967 Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Dan Gallagher Music provided by Killer Tracks: "Crystalline" by Enrico Cacace & Manuel Bandettini, "Based On True Events" by Eric Chevalier, "Mirrored Cubes" by Laurent Dury, "Lost In The Sky" by Matthews Samar If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Credits Interviewee: Jennifer Eigenbrode (NASA/GSFC) Producer: Dan Gallagher (USRA) Scientists: Jennifer Eigenbrode (NASA/GSFC) Paul Mahaffy (NASA/GSFC) Editor: Dan Gallagher (USRA) Science Writer: William Steigerwald (NASA/GSFC) Videographer: Rob Andreoli (AIMM) Production Assistant: John Caldwell (AIMM) Animators: Lisa Poje (Freelance) Josh Masters (USRA) Walt Feimer (KBRwyle) Michael Lentz (USRA) Chris Smith (SLAC) John Blackwell (LPI) Project Support: Molly Wasser (ADNET Systems Inc.) Technical Support: Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems Inc.)