{"id":11656,"date":"2025-04-07T12:26:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T10:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/?p=11656"},"modified":"2025-04-07T12:26:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T10:26:53","slug":"scoperte-su-marte-le-molecole-organiche-piu-lunghe-mai-trovate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/longest-organic-molecules-ever-found-discovered-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Longest organic molecules ever found discovered on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An extraordinary discovery comes from the Red Planet: on <strong>Mars<\/strong> have been detected <strong>complex organic molecules<\/strong>, <strong>the longest ever identified<\/strong> to date on its surface. They were identified by an international research team led by the <strong>National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)<\/strong> French, thanks to data collected by the <strong>NASA's Curiosity rover<\/strong>. The study was published in the prestigious scientific journal <strong>PNAS<\/strong> (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Long, carbon-rich molecules: what does it mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The molecules discovered are <strong>carbon chains up to 12 atoms long<\/strong>, very similar in structure to the <strong>fatty acids<\/strong> that are produced on Earth by living organisms. These molecules, defined <strong>organic<\/strong> due to the presence of carbon, are not proof of life per se, but represent <strong>a potential clue<\/strong> of past biological processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are, in fact, structures <strong>more complex<\/strong> of the organic ones found so far on Mars, a sign that the planet may have hosted in the past <strong>life-supporting environments<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A result of collaboration and technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discovery is the result of the analysis conducted with <strong>SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars)<\/strong>, an instrument on board the Curiosity rover that has been exploring the Martian surface since 2012. The research team consists of French, US, Mexican and Spanish scientists, demonstrating the <strong>global nature of space research<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the authors, the <strong>dry and cold climate of Mars<\/strong> may have contributed to the preservation of these molecules for <strong>billions of years<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Towards the future: the ExoMars 2028 mission<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discovery represents an important springboard for future missions, in particular for <strong>ExoMars 2028<\/strong>, a collaboration between the\u2019<strong>European Space Agency (ESA)<\/strong> and the <strong>NASA<\/strong>. The aim of this mission will be precisely the detailed analysis of Martian chemistry, in search of more obvious biological traces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Life on Mars? Perhaps we are not so far from the answer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the discovery does not yet represent definitive proof of the presence of life on Mars, <strong>strengthens the hypothesis that microbial life forms may have existed in the past<\/strong>. The long organic molecules detected are a powerful clue, reminding us how much we still have to learn about our planetary neighbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The journey towards understanding the <strong>life beyond Earth<\/strong> continuous, one carbon atom at a time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Una scoperta straordinaria arriva dal Pianeta Rosso: su Marte sono state rilevate molecole organiche complesse, le pi\u00f9 lunghe mai identificate fino ad oggi sulla sua superficie. A individuarle \u00e8 stato un gruppo internazionale di ricerca guidato dal Centro Nazionale della Ricerca Scientifica (CNRS) francese, grazie ai dati raccolti dal rover Curiosity della NASA. Lo studio [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":11657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":44,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vita-nello-spazio"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11658,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11656\/revisions\/11658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}