may have found key to have life

The Curiosity vehicle NASA discovered nitrogen on the surface of Mars, mean something that contributes to evidence that the Red Planet could have supported life in the past - said the US space agency said on Tuesday.

When drilling Martian rocks, the rover Curiosity found evidence of nitrates, nitrogen-containing compounds that can be used by living organisms.

The Curiosity team has found evidence that other ingredients necessary for life, such as liquid water and organic matter, already existed in the place known as Gale Crater.

"Find a biochemically accessible form of nitrogen is one more argument for the thesis that the ancient Martian environment in Gale crater would be habitable," said Jennifer Stern's Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Nitrogen is essential to all known forms of life because it is a building block of DNA and RNA.

However, "there is no evidence to suggest that nitrogen molecules found by the team were created for life," warned NASA.

"The surface of Mars is inhospitable for known forms of life," said the agency.

The research team suggested that, instead, nitrates are old and probably came from meteorite impacts, rays and other non-biological processes.

On Earth and Mars, nitrogen is found in the form of nitrogen dioxide gas - two atoms stuck together so tightly that not react easily with other molecules.

The nitrogen atoms must be separated or "fixed" so that they can participate in chemical reactions necessary for life.

"On Earth, some organisms are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen and this process is essential for metabolic activity," said NASA.

"However, smaller amounts of nitrogen are also fixed by energy events like lightning."

The Curiosity vehicle is currently at the foot of Mount Sharp, a mountain 5,500 meters, formed by sedimentary layers.

In December, the robot detected regular methane emissions near the Martian surface, but the origin of the phenomenon is unknown.

Scientists do not expect the rover Curiosity find aliens or life on Mars, but hope to use it to analyze soil and rocks for signs of the key elements for life that the Red Planet may have harbored in the past.

The vehicle of $ 2.5 billion also aims to study the Martian environment to prepare for a possible human mission there in the coming years.

The US president, Barack Obama, promises to send humans to the Red Planet by 2030.
msn news source