Moon and Mars

To borrow from “Alice in Wonderland,” the case for life on Mars keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. Two rovers have discovered organic compounds there – the chemical building blocks of life – in locations that are thousands of miles apart. And some recent looks at results from the Viking landers of the 1970s suggests they, too, might have found organics. So it’s possible that microbes might have inhabited Mars in the past – and might do so even today. Some of the best evidence comes from the Perseverance rover. In 2024, it studied a formation known as Bright Angel – layers of sediment deposited at the bottom of a river perhaps three and a half billion years ago. A rock named Cheyava Falls contained a lot of organics. And a study earlier this year confirmed the finding. The compounds could have been produced by microscopic life. But there are several other possible explanations, including chemical reactions in the rocks themselves. Perseverance stored a sample of Cheyava Falls for return to Earth. Laboratory analysis could tell us for sure how the organics were formed. But NASA has nixed a planned sample-return mission. So we’re a long way from satisfying our curiosity about life on Mars. Look for Mars quite near the Moon early tomorrow. It looks like a bright star. They’re especially close as they climb into good view, around 2:30 or 3. We’ll talk about the Moon and another companion tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield