More than 20 organic molecules preserved in ancient Martian rock for three and a half billion years.

This week on Planetary Radio.

I'm Sarah Al Ahmed of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond.

Today we're talking with Amy Williams, astrobiologists at the University of Florida,

and longtime member of the Curiosity rover science team. We'll speak about a landmark experiment

that revealed more than 20 diverse organic molecules in ancient Martian rock.

Then we'll check in with Bruce Betts, chief scientist of the Planetary Society for What's Up and our weekly random space fact.

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NASA's Curiosity rover landed in Gale Crater on Mars in 2012.

For more than a decade, it's been making extraordinary discoveries about the red planet's ancient past.

Today we're going to be talking about a paper that just came out. It's called

Diverse Organic Molecules on Mars revealed by the first Sam-T-M-A-H experiment. This is a result

that's been years in the making. As I've said, curiosity found more than 20 different

organic molecules in a single rock sample. That includes the first detection of a nitrogen-bearing

heterocycle on Mars. That's a type of molecule that serves as a building block for DNA and other

compounds that life depends on. At least life as we know it.

Joining us is Dr. Amy Williams. She's an astrobiologist and associate professor at the University of Florida. You may remember her from her appearance on planetary radio back in August

of 2023. She joined us to talk about the Mars Life Explorer mission concept and the search

for extant life on the red planet.

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