Much like Frodo Baggins on his way to Mount Doom, NASA’s Curiosity rover is working its way towards the Martian Mount Sharp. It’s currently in the Gale Crater at the foot of the mountain, which may have once been a lake teeming with living organisms. Tuesday, NASA announced that the Curiosity rover has discovered new evidence of these living organisms. Researchers say they discovered the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars. These organic molecules are the building blocks of life and suggest the Red Planet once supported life of some fashion. Dawn Sumner is a professor of geology at UC Davis who is on NASA’s Curiosity team. She joins us to explain the new findings.
- NASA Rover Finds Active and Ancient Organic Chemistry On Mars
- Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover
- NY Times: Curiosity Rover’s Quest for Clues on Mars
- BBC: Curiosity Mars rover 'solves mountain riddle'
- Science Magazine: Mars Curiosity rover finds evidence of ancient lakes in Gale crater
- LA Times: Mars apparently had massive lake, NASA's Curiosity rover finds
- Red Planet Rover - On Discovery Channel, Thurs. Dec. 18, 7 p.m.