![]() ![]() This system serves two purposes on probes like Perseverance: looking at the makeup of minerals in the Martian regolith, and seeing if it can spot any organic residue along the way. Raman spectroscopy relies on shining a laser on a sample, then observing the way the light is scattered by the vibration of bonds between atoms in a molecule’s system. Part of Perseverance’s kit is Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals - or SHERLOC to its friends. ![]() WHAT’S NEW - Perseverance and other Martian probes use a whole suite of instruments to detect the presence of organic molecules in the regolith. Raman, who discovered it nearly a century ago - to a simulated Mars in Earth orbit, only a few traces of life remained at the surface.īut there might be a gold mine for astrobiologists beneath the probes’ wheels - it’s just that rovers haven’t been able to dig deep enough to get at it. After exposing the sorts of organic molecules most easily detected by the technique - known as Raman spectroscopy after Indian physicist C.V. But Curiosity and Perseverance’s discoveries of organic molecules on the Martian surface could just be the tip of the iceberg.Īccording to a newly published paper in Science Advances, a team working with the European Space Agency’s EXPOSE-R2 system on the International Space Station have found that the technique Perseverance used might have trouble finding many molecules to detect. Early this year, NASA announced that its Perseverance rover had found organic molecules on Mars by shining a laser through samples collected in Jezero Crater, adding to the rover Curiosity's finds in 2018. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |