Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

doi:10.1126/science.aas9185

. 2018 Jun 8;360(6393):1096-1101.

doi: 10.1126/science.aas9185.

Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

Jennifer L Eigenbrode¹, Roger E Summons², Andrew Steele³, Caroline Freissinet⁴, Maëva Millan⁵, Rafael Navarro-González⁶, Brad Sutter^{7

8}, Amy C McAdam⁴, Heather B Franz⁴, Daniel P Glavin⁴, Paul D Archer Jr⁷, Paul R Mahaffy⁴, Pamela G Conrad⁴, Joel A Hurowitz⁹, John P Grotzinger¹⁰, Sanjeev Gupta¹¹, Doug W Ming⁸, Dawn Y Sumner¹², Cyril Szopa⁵, Charles Malespin⁴, Arnaud Buch¹³, Patrice Coll¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA. jennifer.l.eigenbrode@nasa.gov.
² Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
³ Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
⁴ Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁵ Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Versailles Saint-Quentin and CNRS, Paris, France.
⁶ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Cuidad de México 04510, México.
⁷ Jacobs Technology, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁸ Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁹ Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹¹ Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
¹² Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
¹³ Laboratoire Génie des Procédés et Matériaux, Centrale Supélec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
¹⁴ Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Université Paris Diderot and CNRS, Créteil, France.

PMID: 29880683
DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9185

Free article

Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

Jennifer L Eigenbrode et al. Science. 2018.

Free article

. 2018 Jun 8;360(6393):1096-1101.

doi: 10.1126/science.aas9185.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA. jennifer.l.eigenbrode@nasa.gov.
² Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
³ Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
⁴ Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁵ Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Versailles Saint-Quentin and CNRS, Paris, France.
⁶ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Cuidad de México 04510, México.
⁷ Jacobs Technology, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁸ Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁹ Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹¹ Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
¹² Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
¹³ Laboratoire Génie des Procédés et Matériaux, Centrale Supélec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
¹⁴ Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Université Paris Diderot and CNRS, Créteil, France.

PMID: 29880683
DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9185

Abstract

Establishing the presence and state of organic matter, including its possible biosignatures, in martian materials has been an elusive quest, despite limited reports of the existence of organic matter on Mars. We report the in situ detection of organic matter preserved in lacustrine mudstones at the base of the ~3.5-billion-year-old Murray formation at Pahrump Hills, Gale crater, by the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite onboard the Curiosity rover. Diverse pyrolysis products, including thiophenic, aromatic, and aliphatic compounds released at high temperatures (500° to 820°C), were directly detected by evolved gas analysis. Thiophenes were also observed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Their presence suggests that sulfurization aided organic matter preservation. At least 50 nanomoles of organic carbon persists, probably as macromolecules containing 5% carbon as organic sulfur molecules.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Organic molecules on Mars.
Ten Kate IL. Ten Kate IL. Science. 2018 Jun 8;360(6393):1068-1069. doi: 10.1126/science.aat2662. Science. 2018. PMID: 29880670 No abstract available.
Comments on the June 7, 2018, NASA News Release and Papers.
Levin GV, Straat PA. Levin GV, et al. Astrobiology. 2018 Jul;18(7):841-842. doi: 10.1089/ast.2018.1922. Epub 2018 Jul 16. Astrobiology. 2018. PMID: 30010389 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Cited by

The search for life signatures on Mars by the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission.
Hou Z, Liu J, Xu Y, Pang F, Wang Y, Qin L, Liu Y, Zhao YS, Wei G, Xu M, Jiang K, Hao C, Ji S, Zhu R, Yu B, Liu J, Sheng Z, Wang J, Zhang C, Li Y. Hou Z, et al. Natl Sci Rev. 2024 Oct 21;11(11):nwae313. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwae313. eCollection 2024 Nov. Natl Sci Rev. 2024. PMID: 39507622 Free PMC article.
Rapid hydrolysis rates of thio- and phosphate esters constrain the origin of metabolism to cool, acidic to neutral environments.
Sanden SA, Butch CJ, Bartlett S, Virgo N, Sekine Y, McGlynn SE. Sanden SA, et al. iScience. 2024 Oct 3;27(11):111088. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111088. eCollection 2024 Nov 15. iScience. 2024. PMID: 39493872 Free PMC article.
Inorganic interpretation of luminescent materials encountered by the Perseverance rover on Mars.
Scheller EL, Bosak T, McCubbin FM, Williford K, Siljeström S, Jakubek RS, Eckley SA, Morris RV, Bykov SV, Kizovski T, Asher S, Berger E, Bower DM, Cardarelli EL, Ehlmann BL, Fornaro T, Fox A, Haney N, Hand K, Roppel R, Sharma S, Steele A, Uckert K, Yanchilina AG, Beyssac O, Farley KA, Henneke J, Heirwegh C, Pedersen DAK, Liu Y, Schmidt ME, Sephton M, Shuster D, Weiss BP. Scheller EL, et al. Sci Adv. 2024 Sep 27;10(39):eadm8241. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adm8241. Epub 2024 Sep 25. Sci Adv. 2024. PMID: 39321302 Free PMC article.
Olivine alteration and the loss of Mars' early atmospheric carbon.
Murray J, Jagoutz O. Murray J, et al. Sci Adv. 2024 Sep 27;10(39):eadm8443. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adm8443. Epub 2024 Sep 25. Sci Adv. 2024. PMID: 39321300 Free PMC article.
Toward the identification of cyano-astroCOMs via vibrational features: benzonitrile as a test case.
Xu Y, Biczysko M. Xu Y, et al. Front Chem. 2024 Sep 3;12:1439194. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1439194. eCollection 2024. Front Chem. 2024. PMID: 39296366 Free PMC article.

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

Actions
Actions

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources
- scite Smart Citations
Miscellaneous
- NCI CPTAC Assay Portal

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

Affiliations

Organic matter preserved in 3-billion-year-old mudstones at Gale crater, Mars

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Comment in

Similar articles

Cited by

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Other Literature Sources

Miscellaneous

Abstract

Comment in

Similar articles

Cited by

Publication types

Related information

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Other Literature Sources

Miscellaneous