Preservation of organics at Mars' near-surface

Caroline Freissinet (1, 2) , Daniel P. Glavin (2) , Arnaud Buch (3) , Cyril Szopa (4, 5) , P. D. Archer Jr. (6) , William B. Brinckerhoff (2) , Anna E. Brunner (2) , Jennifer L. Eigenbrode (2) , Heather B. Franz (2) , S. Kashyap (7, 2) , Charles A. Malespin (2) , Maeva Millan (5) , Kristen E. Miller (8) , Rafael Navarro-González (9) , B. D. Prats (2) , Roger E. Summons (10) , Samuel Teinturier (5) , Paul R. Mahaffy (2)

1 CSST - Center for Space Sciences and Technology
2 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
3 LGPM - Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux - EA 4038
4 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France
5 PLANETO - LATMOS
6 Jacobs Technology ESCG
7 CRESST - Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology [GSFC]
8 MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
9 Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares [Mexico]
10 EAPS - Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences [MIT, Cambridge]

One of the biggest concerns for the in situ detection of organic molecules on extraterrestrial environment is the preservation potential of the molecules at the surface and subsurface given the harsh radiative environment and oxidants they are exposed to. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission hosts Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), a 40 kg suite of instruments which is devoted to make the inventory of organic and inorganic compounds in Mars’ atmosphere and subsurface, and understanding their processes of preservation. To date, SAM has detected and identified several organic molecules in the Martian subsuface, such as chloroalkanes, chlorobenzene at various states of chlorination, sulphur-containaing molecules and functionalized aromatic hydrocarbons. The presence of organic molecules opens up habitability to another level, where the building blocks of life were available. Understanding their windows of preservation of organics will help in the search for prebiotic or biological signature on Mars.

Domains: Astrophysics [astro-ph]

Caroline Freissinet, Daniel P. Glavin, Arnaud Buch, Cyril Szopa, P. D. Archer Jr., et al.. Preservation of organics at Mars' near-surface. Biosignature Preservation and Detection in Mars Analog Environments conference, May 2016, Incline Village, NV, United States. ⟨insu-01336824⟩