Curiosity Mars rover discovers largest organic molecules ever seen on Red Planet

Nov 20, 2024
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Very curious that these hydrocarbons are found only as linear chains, without any branching, and only three different lengths at that (with a cutoff at dodecane due to instrument limitation).

Possibly of biological origin since abiotic processes forming such compounds would be expected to leave a larger assortment of lengths, and some branched forms might also be expected.* So it is also very interesting that smaller chains were not observed, which are within the instrument's range.

Does anybody know about the presence of such specific alkanes in meteorites?


* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer–Tropsch_process
 

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