NASA says organics on Mars are hard to explain without life

View original. | The Mars Curiosity rover captured this image of the drill hole in the Cumberland mudstone that it first investigated back in 2013. A new study from NASA suggests the long-chain organic molecules it found in the rock – thought to have likely come from fatty acids and/or alkanes – can’t be explained by non-biological processes alone. Are these organics on Mars evidence of past life? Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ MSSS.

• NASA’s Curiosity rover found complex organic molecules on Mars.