Studies on Mars’ Gale Crater sediments show unique organic compositions that suggest atmospheric influences, highlighting non-biological processes in organic matter formation. Credit: SciTechDaily.com’ ancient geological features suggest the presence of water in the past, and recent studies of sediments from Gale Crater reveal organic matter with unique isotopic compositions, pointing to atmospheric processes, not biological activity, as the source of this organic material.
The atmospheric origin of organic matter suggests that Mar surfaces may contain larger amounts of organic compounds than previously anticipated. Credit: Tokyo TechC content. The research, led by Professor Yuichiro Ueno from Tokyo Institute of Technology and Professor Matthew Johnson from the University of Copenhagen, was published in the journalC abundance of 0.92% to 0.99% of the carbon that makes it up. This is extremely low compared to Earth’s sedimentary organic matter, which is about 1.
“If the estimation in this research is correct, there may be an unexpected amount of organic material present in Martian sediments. This suggests that future explorations of Mars might uncover large quantities of organic matter,” says Ueno.C-depleted organic matter from CO in a reducing early Martian atmosphere” by Yuichiro Ueno, Johan A. Schmidt, Matthew S.