NASA Study Questions Mars Organics: Clues to Ancient Life or Chemical Origins?

• A new NASA study in Astrobiology questions if non-biological processes fully explain organic compounds found on Mars by the Curiosity rover.
• Curiosity detected large organic molecules, including decane, undecane, and dodecane, in ancient Martian mudstone within Gale Crater.
• While fatty acid fragments on Earth often indicate life, geology can also create them, leaving the origin on Mars uncertain.
• Researchers combined lab experiments and mathematical modeling, estimating that cosmic radiation would have destroyed most non-biologically produced organics over 80 million years.
• The study suggests that the observed organic levels might exceed typical non-biological production, making life a plausible, though unconfirmed, origin.