Could NASA have discovered and accidentally destroyed evidence of Mars on organic matter?

According to a report from New Scientist, a NASA mission may have accidentally destroyed what could be considered the first discovery of organic molecules on Mars more than 40 years ago.

Recently, NASA caused a chaos when it announced that the Curiosity autonomous car discovered the. This follows the first confirmation of organic molecules on Mars in 2014.

But because of the small, carbon-rich meteorites that are frequently produced on the Red Planet, scientists suspect that organic substances have existed on Mars for decades. But the researchers were surprised when NASA first sent two Viking spacecraft to Mars to search for organic matter and found it completely absent in 1976.

Scientists don't know what to do with Viking's findings - how can there be no organic matter on Mars? Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, shared with New Scientist: "It's completely unexpected and doesn't fit into what we know."

Viking ships on Mars.

The explanation may be given when NASA's Phoenix spacecraft found perchlorate on Mars in 2008. This is a salt used to make fireworks on Earth; It is very explosive under high temperature. And while Mars's surface was not too warm, the Viking ship's main instrument, the mass spectrometry gas chromatograph (GCMS), heated the Martian soil sample to find organic molecules. Because of perchlorate in Martian soil, this device will burn any organic matter in the samples.

The discovery of perchlorate reaffirmed the claims of scientists that Viking ships may have found organic matter on Mars. However, the discovery of perchlorate did not provide concrete evidence that Viking ships had found and accidentally destroyed organic molecules, so the investigation continued.

According to New Scienctist, Curiosity recently discovered the diversity of organic molecules on the Red Planet including chlorobenzene. This molecule is produced when carbon molecules burn with perchlorate, so scientists suspect that it can be produced when the soil samples are burned.

The researchers were inspired by this indirect evidence to dig a little deeper and found evidence that Viking ships could have found and then destroyed organic matter. In a new study, published in June in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Melissa Guzman of LATMOS research center in France, McKay and some collaborators reviewed the data of Viking ships to find out if something is missed.

The team found that Viking ships also discovered chlorobenzene , which could very well form from burning organic materials in soil samples.

Even so, this is not direct evidence that Viking ships have found organic molecules and then accidentally burned them. And even within the scientists who have completed this investigation are divided views.

Guzman said she still did not fully believe that the chlorobenzene they discovered was formed when organic matter in Martian soil was burned. She thought that molecules could come from Earth on NASA devices.

But despite this skepticism, others are convinced.