- #2023Recap: A to Z of Bollywood in 2023: A for Animal, F for Five Hundred Crores, L for Lipstick, O for Organic, S for Shah Rukh Khan and more… Bollywood Hungama
- Top 10 films of 2023—from ThePrint journalists ThePrint
- Bollywood celebrates rocking year, riding high on action flicks, unbridled masculinity and misogyny The Associated Press
- Most popular actors of 2023: Shah Rukh Khan reclaims ‘Badshah’ status; Vijay, Ranbir Kapoor got audience back to theatres The Indian Express
- Box Office | 2023 recap: Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Sunny Deol set 500 crore as the next big milestone Moneycontrol
Tag Archives: organic
Intriguing Meteorite From Mars Reveals ‘Huge Organic Diversity’, Scientists Say : ScienceAlert
In a recent study published in Sciences Advances, an international team of scientists led by the Technical University of Munich examined the Martian meteorite Tissint, which fell near the village of Tissint, Morocco, on 18 July 2011, with pieces of the meteorite found as far as approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the village.
What makes Tissint intriguing is the presence of a “huge organic diversity”, as noted in the study, which could help scientists better understand if life ever existed on Mars, and even the geologic history of Earth, as well.
“Mars and Earth share many aspects of their evolution,” Dr. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, who is the director of the research unit Analytical Biochemistry at the Technical University of Munich, and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
“And while life arose and thrived on our home planet, the question of whether it ever existed on Mars is a very hot research topic that requires deeper knowledge of our neighboring planet’s water, organic molecules, and reactive surfaces.”
Organic molecules are molecules comprised of carbon atoms that are bonded to hydrogen atoms, but can also contain oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements, as well. The four primary classes of organic molecules include carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids.
As seen on Earth, organic molecules are analogous to life, but the study notes that abiotic organic chemistry, non-biological processes, have been observed “in other Martian meteorites.”
“Understanding the processes and sequence of events that shaped this rich organic bounty will reveal new details about Mars’ habitability and potentially about the reactions that could lead to the formation of life,” Dr. Andrew Steele, who is a staff scientist at Carnegie Science, a member of the Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group for NASA’s Perseverance rover, and a co-author on the study, said in a statement.
Dr. Steele has also conducted extensive research pertaining to organic material found in Martian meteorites, to include Tissint.
For the study, the researchers examined the entirety of Tissint’s organic composition, and identified a “diverse chemistry and abundance in complex molecules “, as noted in the study, while also helping to unlock the past geologic processes within the crust and mantle of the red planet.
The researchers also identified a plethora of organic magnesium compounds never before observed on Mars, which could bring new evidence about the geochemical processes that shaped Mars’ deep interior while possibly making a link between the red planet’s mineral evolution and carbon cycle.
NASA’s upcoming Mars Sample Return mission could provide even greater insights into both the organic and mineral composition of the red planet. Dr. Schmitt-Kopplin recently told Universe Today that such a mission could be just as successful as Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission since they “were able to show that meteorites reflect nicely the chemistry found in the return mission, we probably will be able to do the same.”
Tissint has a total weight of 7 kilograms (15 pounds), and is currently the fifth meteorite classified as being of Martian origin, with a 2012 study estimating it was ejected from Mars approximately 700,000 years ago from some type of violent event.
Tissint draws some parallels with one of the most famous meteorites of Martian origin found on Earth, ALH 84001, which was the subject of much scrutiny in the late 1990s when it was initially believed to contain microfossils, findings that since been rendered inconclusive.
“ALH 84001 was one of the most studied Mars meteorites because it was found in Antarctica and thus was ‘conserved’ in the ice with low contamination,” Dr. Schmitt-Kopplin recently told Universe Today.
“That time looking at molecules of life in the diverse chemistry of that meteorite and seeing in addition biological-like features in microscopy led to a too rapid conclusion of having found life on Mars.”
What new secrets of Mars will Tissint, future meteorites, and the future samples returned from Mars teach us about the red planet? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.
Organic reaction mechanism classification using machine learning
Simonetti, M., Cannas, D. M., Just-Baringo, X., Vitorica-Yrezabal, I. J. & Larrosa, I. Cyclometallated ruthenium catalyst enables late-stage directed arylation of pharmaceuticals. Nat. Chem. 10, 724–731 (2018).
Google Scholar
Salazar, C. A. et al. Tailored quinones support high-turnover Pd catalysts for oxidative C-H arylation with O2. Science 370, 1454–1460 (2020).
Google Scholar
DiRocco, D. A. et al. A multifunctional catalyst that stereoselectively assembles prodrugs. Science 356, 426–430 (2017).
Google Scholar
Li, T. et al. Efficient, chemoenzymatic process for manufacture of the Boceprevir bicyclic [3.1.0]proline intermediate based on amine oxidase-catalyzed desymmetrization. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 6467–6472 (2012).
Google Scholar
Nielsen, L. P., Stevenson, C. P., Blackmond, D. G. & Jacobsen, E. N. Mechanistic investigation leads to a synthetic improvement in the hydrolytic kinetic resolution of terminal epoxides. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 1360–1362 (2004).
Google Scholar
van Dijk, L. et al. Mechanistic investigation of Rh(I)-catalysed asymmetric Suzuki–Miyaura coupling with racemic allyl halides. Nat. Catal. 4, 284–292 (2021).
Google Scholar
Camasso, N. M. & Sanford, M. S. Design, synthesis, and carbon-heteroatom coupling reactions of organometallic nickel(IV) complexes. Science 347, 1218–1220 (2015).
Google Scholar
Milo, A., Neel, A. J., Toste, F. D. & Sigman, M. S. A data-intensive approach to mechanistic elucidation applied to chiral anion catalysis. Science 347, 737–743 (2015).
Google Scholar
Butcher, T. W. et al. Desymmetrization of difluoromethylene groups by C-F bond activation. Nature 583, 548–553 (2020).
Google Scholar
Cho, E. J. et al. The palladium-catalyzed trifluoromethylation of aryl chlorides. Science 328, 1679–1681 (2010).
Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G., Alamillo-Ferrer, C. & Bures, J. Mechanistically guided design of an efficient and enantioselective aminocatalytic alpha-chlorination of aldehydes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 6805–6809 (2021).
Google Scholar
Schreyer, L. et al. Confined acids catalyze asymmetric single aldolizations of acetaldehyde enolates. Science 362, 216–219 (2018).
Google Scholar
Peters, B. K. et al. Scalable and safe synthetic organic electroreduction inspired by Li-ion battery chemistry. Science 363, 838–845 (2019).
Google Scholar
Michaelis, L. & Menten, M. L. Die Kinetik der Invertinwirkung. Biochem. Z. 49, 333–369 (1913).
Google Scholar
Blackmond, D. G. Reaction progress kinetic analysis: a powerful methodology for mechanistic studies of complex catalytic reactions. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 44, 4302–4320 (2005).
Google Scholar
Mathew, J. S. et al. Investigations of Pd-catalyzed ArX coupling reactions informed by reaction progress kinetic analysis. J. Org. Chem. 71, 4711–4722 (2006).
Google Scholar
Bures, J. A simple graphical method to determine the order in catalyst. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 55, 2028–2031 (2016).
Google Scholar
Burés, J. Variable time normalization analysis: general graphical elucidation of reaction orders from concentration profiles. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 55, 16084–16087 (2016).
Google Scholar
Shi, Y., Prieto, P. L., Zepel, T., Grunert, S. & Hein, J. E. Automated experimentation powers data science in chemistry. Acc. Chem. Res. 54, 546–555 (2021).
Google Scholar
Burger, B. et al. A mobile robotic chemist. Nature 583, 237–241 (2020).
Google Scholar
Bedard, A. C. et al. Reconfigurable system for automated optimization of diverse chemical reactions. Science 361, 1220–1225 (2018).
Google Scholar
Steiner, S. et al. Organic synthesis in a modular robotic system driven by a chemical programming language. Science 363, eaav2211 (2019).
Google Scholar
Clauset, A., Shalizi, C. R. & Newman, M. E. J. Power-law distributions in empirical data. SIAM Rev. 51, 661–703 (2009).
Google Scholar
Martinez-Carrion, A. et al. Kinetic treatments for catalyst activation and deactivation processes based on variable time normalization analysis. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 58, 10189–10193 (2019).
Google Scholar
Bernacki, J. P. & Murphy, R. M. Model discrimination and mechanistic interpretation of kinetic data in protein aggregation studies. Biophys. J. 96, 2871–2887 (2009).
Google Scholar
Pfluger, P. M. & Glorius, F. Molecular machine learning: the future of synthetic chemistry? Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 59, 18860–18865 (2020).
Google Scholar
Segler, M. H. S., Preuss, M. & Waller, M. P. Planning chemical syntheses with deep neural networks and symbolic AI. Nature 555, 604–610 (2018).
Google Scholar
Raissi, M., Yazdani, A. & Karniadakis, G. E. Hidden fluid mechanics: learning velocity and pressure fields from flow visualizations. Science 367, 1026–1030 (2020).
Google Scholar
Hermann, J., Schatzle, Z. & Noe, F. Deep-neural-network solution of the electronic Schrodinger equation. Nat. Chem. 12, 891–897 (2020).
Google Scholar
Shields, B. J. et al. Bayesian reaction optimization as a tool for chemical synthesis. Nature 590, 89–96 (2021).
Google Scholar
Tunyasuvunakool, K. et al. Highly accurate protein structure prediction for the human proteome. Nature 596, 590–596 (2021).
Google Scholar
Jumper, J. et al. Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold. Nature 596, 583–589 (2021).
Google Scholar
Hueffel, J. A. et al. Accelerated dinuclear palladium catalyst identification through unsupervised machine learning. Science 374, 1134–1140 (2021).
Google Scholar
Haitao, X., Junjie, W. & Lu, L. In Proc. 1st International Conference on E-Business Intelligence 303–309 (Atlantis Press, 2010).
Batista, G. E. A. P. A. et al. In Advances in Intelligent Data Analysis VI (eds Fazel Famili, A. et al.) 24–35 (Springer, 2005).
Wei, J.-M., Yuan, X.-J., Hu, Q.-H. & Wang, S.-Q. A novel measure for evaluating classifiers. Expert Syst. Appl. 37, 3799–3809 (2010).
Google Scholar
Alberton, A. L., Schwaab, M., Schmal, M. & Pinto, J. C. Experimental errors in kinetic tests and its influence on the precision of estimated parameters. Part I—analysis of first-order reactions. Chem. Eng. J. 155, 816–823 (2009).
Google Scholar
Pacheco, H., Thiengo, F., Schmal, M. & Pinto, J. C. A family of kinetic distributions for interpretation of experimental fluctuations in kinetic problems. Chem. Eng. J. 332, 303–311 (2018).
Google Scholar
Storer, A. C., Darlison, M. G. & Cornish-Bowden, A. The nature of experimental error in enzyme kinetic measurments. Biochem. J 151, 361–367 (1975).
Google Scholar
Valkó, É. & Turányi, T. In Lindner, E., Micheletti, A. & Nunes, C. (eds) Mathematical Modelling in Real Life Problems. Mathematics in Industry https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50388-8_3 (2020).
Thiel, V., Wannowius, K. J., Wolff, C., Thiele, C. M. & Plenio, H. Ring-closing metathesis reactions: interpretation of conversion-time data. Chem. Eur. J. 19, 16403–16414 (2013).
Google Scholar
Joannou, M. V., Hoyt, J. M. & Chirik, P. J. Investigations into the mechanism of inter- and intramolecular iron-catalyzed [2 + 2] cycloaddition of alkenes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 142, 5314–5330 (2020).
Google Scholar
Knapp, S. M. M. et al. Mechanistic studies of alkene isomerization catalyzed by CCC-pincer complexes of iridium. Organometallics 33, 473–484 (2014).
Google Scholar
Stroek, W., Keilwerth, M., Pividori, D. M., Meyer, K. & Albrecht, M. An iron-mesoionic carbene complex for catalytic intramolecular C-H amination utilizing organic azides. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 20157–20165 (2021).
Google Scholar
Lehnherr, D. et al. Discovery of a photoinduced dark catalytic cycle using in situ LED-NMR spectroscopy. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140, 13843–13853 (2018).
Google Scholar
Ludwig, J. R., Zimmerman, P. M., Gianino, J. B. & Schindler, C. S. Iron(III)-catalysed carbonyl-olefin metathesis. Nature 533, 374–379 (2016).
Google Scholar
Albright, H. et al. Catalytic carbonyl-olefin metathesis of aliphatic ketones: iron(III) homo-dimers as Lewis acidic superelectrophiles. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 141, 1690–1700 (2019).
Google Scholar
Janse van Rensburg, W., Steynberg, P. J., Meyer, W. H., Kirk, M. M. & Forman, G. S. DFT prediction and experimental observation of substrate-induced catalyst decomposition in ruthenium-catalyzed olefin metathesis. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 14332–14333 (2004).
Google Scholar
van der Eide, E. F. & Piers, W. E. Mechanistic insights into the ruthenium-catalysed diene ring-closing metathesis reaction. Nat. Chem. 2, 571–576 (2010).
Google Scholar
USDA’s Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule aims to stamp out fraud
Tom Chapman, chief executive of the Organic Trade Association, said the updates represent “the single largest revision to the organic standards since they were published in 1990.” They should go a long way toward boosting confidence in the “organic” label, Chapman said, noting that the move “raises the bar to prevent bad actors at any point in the supply chain.”
Chapman’s business association, which represents nearly 10,000 growers in the United States, has been pushing for stricter guidelines for years, motivated in part by a series of stories in The Washington Post in 2017 revealing that fraudulent “organic” foods were a widespread problem in the food industry.
Yet problems with organic fraud have persisted. This month, the Justice Department announced indictments of individuals alleged to have masterminded a multimillion-dollar scheme to export nonorganic soybeans from Eastern Europe to be sold into the United States as certified organic. They were able to charge 50 percent more for “organic” grain than conventional, the department said.
And this week, two Minnesota farmers were charged in connection with an alleged plan to sell more than $46 million in chemically treated crops as organic between 2014 and 2021.
“When rule-breakers cheat the system, it sows seeds of doubt about the organic label’s integrity and jeopardizes the future of the industry as a whole,” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) said in a statement. “As a longtime organic farmer, I know how expensive and time-consuming it is to adhere to the required standards to earn a USDA certified organic label.”
Government standards require that products bearing the organic label are produced without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering or other excluded practices, sewage sludge or irradiation. It’s a high bar that even many farms that use more natural practices don’t meet.
Sales of organic foods in the United States have more than doubled in the past 10 years, jumping by a record 12.4 percent in 2020 to $61.9 billion as consumers became more concerned about eating healthy foods, according to the Organic Trade Association. Experts predict the category will continue to grow. Though some consumers view “organic” as a synonym for “healthy,” the science on whether organic food is healthier is mixed, with many studies showing only a small increase in some nutrients.
The supply chain has long bedeviled organic food producers, particularly as the industry has grown and large manufacturers source their ingredients from overseas, where it’s harder to check if they are meeting standards. U.S. organic farmers complain that allowing companies to market these products as “organic” creates an unlevel playing field and undermines trust in the label.
Key updates to the rules include requiring certification of more of the businesses, such as brokers and traders, at critical links in organic supply chains. It also requires organic certificates for all organic imports and increases inspections and reporting requirements of certified operations.
“Protecting and growing the organic sector and the trusted USDA organic seal is a key part of the USDA Food Systems Transformation initiative,” Jenny Lester Moffitt, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, said in a statement. She added that “this success is another demonstration that USDA fully stands behind the organic brand.”
Some food industry organizations say they aren’t yet sure how onerous the new rule will be for members. Others already say the new rule doesn’t go far enough to root out fraud.
“I’m quite concerned that everyone is going to declare victory and go home,” said Mark Kastel, founder of OrganicEye, an advocacy group.
Kastel said that the agency “dragged its feet” on organics, taking 12 years to put forward regulations after Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act in 1990. And he points to a long-simmering debate about whether large-scale dairies in the West sufficiently adhere to standards of how organically raised animals should be treated. These dairies now produce the majority of milk labeled as organic.
Violations of the standards, which include giving the cows time to graze outdoors, amount to “a betrayal to the values that justifies consumers paying a premium price for organic dairy products,” Kastel said.
The new rules go into effect in March, and affected companies will have one year to comply with changes.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Discovers Possible Organic Compounds in Mars Crater Rocks
This Perseverance rover Mastcam-Z enhanced color photo mosaic shows a butte near Jezero crater informally dubbed “Kodiak” by the rover team. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS; edited by Jim Bell/ASU
Rock samples from the Jezero crater analyzed by
“I hope that one day these samples could be returned to Earth so that we can explore whether conditions were right for life in the early history of Mars.” — Professor Mark Sephton
Organic compounds (chemical compounds with carbon–hydrogen bonds) can be created through nonbiological processes, so the mere existence of these compounds is not direct evidence of life. To determine this conclusively, a future mission returning the samples to Earth would be needed.
Led by researchers at Caltech and carried out by an international team including
Moving water
Perseverance previously found organic compounds at Jezero’s delta. Deltas are fan-shaped geologic formations created at the intersection of a river and a lake at the edge of the crater.
Mission scientists had been particularly interested in the Jezero delta because such formations can preserve microorganisms. Deltas are created when a river transporting fine-grained sediments enters a deeper, slower-moving body of water. As the river water spreads out, it abruptly slows down, depositing the sediments it is carrying and trapping and preserving any microorganisms that may exist in the water.
However, the crater floor, where the rover landed for safety reasons before traveling to the delta, was more of a mystery. In lake beds, the researchers expected to find sedimentary rocks, because the water deposits layer after layer of sediment. However, when the rover touched down there, some researchers were surprised to find igneous rocks (cooled magma) on the crater floor with minerals in them that recorded not just igneous processes but significant contact with water.
These minerals, such as carbonates and salts, require water to circulate in the igneous rocks, carving out niches and depositing dissolved minerals in different areas like voids and cracks. In some places, the data show evidence for organics within these potentially habitable niches.
Discovered by SHERLOC
The minerals and co-located possible organic compounds were discovered using SHERLOC, or the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals instrument.
Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC is equipped with a number of tools, including a Raman spectrometer that uses a specific type of fluorescence to search for organic compounds and also see how they are distributed in a material, providing insight into how they were preserved in that location.
Bethany Ehlmann, co-author of the paper, professor of planetary science, and associate director of the Keck Institute for Space Studies, said: “The microscopic compositional imaging capabilities of SHERLOC have really blown open our ability to decipher the time-ordering of Mars’s past environments.”
As the rover rolled toward the delta, it took several samples of the water-altered igneous rocks and cached them for a possible future sample-return mission. The samples would need to be returned to Earth and examined in laboratories with advanced instrumentation in order to determine definitively the presence and type of organics and whether they have anything to do with life.
Reference: “Aqueous alteration processes in Jezero crater, Mars−implications for organic geochemistry” by Eva L. Scheller, Joseph Razzell Hollis, Emily L. Cardarelli, Andrew Steele, Luther W. Beegle, Rohit Bhartia, Pamela Conrad, Kyle Uckert, Sunanda Sharma, Bethany L. Ehlmann, William J. Abbey, Sanford A. Asher, Kathleen C. Benison, Eve L. Berger, Olivier Beyssac, Benjamin L. Bleefeld, Tanja Bosak, Adrian J. Brown, Aaron S. Burton, Sergei V. Bykov, Ed Cloutis, Alberto G. Fairén, Lauren DeFlores, Kenneth A. Farley, Deidra M. Fey, Teresa Fornaro, Allison C. Fox, Marc Fries, Keyron Hickman-Lewis, William F. Hug, Joshua E. Huggett, Samara Imbeah, Ryan S. Jakubek, Linda C. Kah, Peter Kelemen, Megan R. Kennedy, Tanya Kizovski, Carina Lee, Yang Liu, Lucia Mandon, Francis M. McCubbin, Kelsey R. Moore, Brian E. Nixon, Jorge I. Núñez, Carolina Rodriguez Sanchez-Vahamonde, Ryan D. Roppel, Mitchell Schulte, Mark A. Sephton, Shiv K. Sharma, Sandra Siljeström, Svetlana Shkolyar, David L. Shuster, Justin I. Simon, Rebecca J. Smith, Kathryn M. Stack, Kim Steadman, Benjamin P. Weiss, Alyssa Werynski, Amy J. Williams, Roger C. Wiens, Kenneth H. Williford, Kathrine Winchell, Brittan Wogsland, Anastasia Yanchilina, Rachel Yingling and Maria-Paz Zorzano, 23 November 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abo5204
The research was funded by NASA, the European Research Council, the Swedish National Space Agency, and the UK Space Agency.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Finds Intriguing Organic Matter in Rock
This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet.
In just a year and a half on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has absolutely rocked its mission. The agency held a briefing Thursday to discuss highlights from the science mission so far, and it was a celebration of rock samples and the discovery of organic matter.
Organic molecules in Wildcat Ridge
A rock named Wildcat Ridge, located in an ancient river delta region of Jezero Crater, was one of the stars of the show. Percy successfully collected two samples from the mudstone rock. Wildcat Ridge is particularly exciting because the organic molecules (called aromatics) found in it are considered a potential biosignature, which NASA describes as a substance or structure that could be evidence of past life but may also have been produced without the presence of life.
The rover team emphasized that finding organic matter doesn’t mean it’s found evidence of ancient life. Organic molecules have been spotted on Mars before, by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater and also by Perseverance, which found carbon-containing molecules earlier in the mission.
Perseverance collected two core samples from Wildcat Ridge and also abraded a round patch to inspect the rock with its Sherloc instrument.
NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU, MSSS
The rover’s Sherloc instrument investigated the rock. (Sherloc stands for Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals.) “In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge, the Sherloc instrument registered the most abundant organic detections on the mission to date,” NASA said.
Scientists are seeing familiar signs in the analysis of Wildcat Ridge. “In the distant past, the sand, mud and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley in a statement. “The fact the organic matter was found in such a sedimentary rock — known for preserving fossils of ancient life here on Earth — is important.”
Perseverance isn’t equipped to find definitive evidence of ancient microbial life on the red planet. “The reality is the burden of proof for establishing life on another planet is very, very high,” said Farley during the press conference. For that, we need to examine Mars rocks up close and in person in Earth labs.
Sample drop
Percy currently has 12 rock samples on board, including the Wildcat Ridge pieces and samples from another sedimentary delta rock called Skinner Ridge. It also collected igneous rock samples earlier in the mission that point to the impact of long-ago volcanic action in the crater.
NASA is so happy with the diversity of samples collected that it’s looking into dropping some of the filled tubes off on the surface soon in preparation for the future Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. MSR is an ambitious plan to send a lander to Mars, pick up Percy’s samples, rocket them off the surface and bring them back to Earth for close study. The mission is under development. If all goes as planned, those rocks could be here by 2033.
The complexity and importance of MSR means NASA and its partners are working out ways to ensure the samples can be collected. There’s hope Perseverance will still be operating in good condition by the time the MSR lander arrives, and will be able to meet it and personally deliver samples. Leaving some samples on the ground this early in the mission at a cache site in the crater will give MSR another opportunity to get the precious rocks on board.
Percy has been collecting paired samples. For example, it could keep one Wildcat Ridge tube on board and drop the other on the ground. “That we are weeks from deploying Perseverance’s fascinating samples and mere years from bringing them to Earth so scientists can study them in exquisite detail is truly phenomenal,” said NASA JPL Director Laurie Leshin. “We will learn so much.”
What’s next for Percy
As thrilling as the delta has been, the rover team is looking ahead at future adventures beyond it. Perseverance could wander up the crater rim, with the team eyeing several possible paths for the climb. Its companion Ingenuity helicopter is in good health and expected to take to the air again.
NASA chose Jezero Crater for exploration because of its fascinating history of water and how the rocks there might preserve evidence of ancient life, if it existed during more habitable times on Mars. Sherloc scientist Sunanda Sharma likened the mission to a treasure hunt for organic life on another planet, saying the samples with aromatics are a clue. The Martian mystery is only just beginning to unfold.
Mars Perseverance Rover Finds Organic Matter in Rock
This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet.
In just a year and a half on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has absolutely rocked its science mission. The agency held a briefing Thursday to discuss highlights from the mission so far, and it was a celebration of rock samples and the discovery of organic matter.
Organic molecules in Wildcat Ridge
A rock named Wildcat Ridge, located in an ancient river delta region of Jezero Crater, was one of the stars of the show. Percy successfully collected two samples from the mudstone rock. Wildcat Ridge is particularly exciting because the organic molecules (called aromatics) found in it are considered a potential biosignature, which NASA describes as a substance or structure that could be evidence of past life but may also have been produced without the presence of life.
The rover team emphasized that finding organic matter doesn’t mean it’s found evidence of ancient life. Organic molecules have been spotted on Mars before, by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater and also by Perseverance, which found carbon-containing molecules earlier in the mission.
Perseverance collected two core samples from Wildcat Ridge and also abraded a round patch to inspect the rock with its Sherloc instrument.
NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU, MSSS
The rover’s Sherloc instrument investigated the rock. (Sherloc stands for Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals.) “In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge, the Sherloc instrument registered the most abundant organic detections on the mission to date,” NASA said.
Scientists are seeing familiar signs in the analysis of Wildcat Ridge. “In the distant past, the sand, mud and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley in a statement. “The fact the organic matter was found in such a sedimentary rock — known for preserving fossils of ancient life here on Earth — is important.”
Perseverance isn’t equipped to find definitive evidence of ancient microbial life on the red planet. “The reality is the burden of proof for establishing life on another planet is very, very high,” said Farley during the press conference. For that, we need to examine Mars rocks up close and in person in Earth labs.
Sample drop
Percy currently has 12 rock samples on board, including the Wildcat Ridge pieces and samples from another sedimentary delta rock called Skinner Ridge. It also collected igneous rock samples earlier in the mission that point to the impact of long-ago volcanic action in the crater.
NASA is so happy with the diversity of samples collected that it’s looking into dropping some of the filled tubes off on the surface soon in preparation for the future Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. MSR is an ambitious plan to send a lander to Mars, pick up Percy’s samples, rocket them off the surface and bring them back to Earth for close study. The mission is under development. If all goes as planned, those rocks could be here by 2033.
The complexity and importance of MSR means NASA and its partners are working out ways to ensure the samples can be collected. There’s hope Perseverance will still be operating in good condition by the time the MSR lander arrives, and will be able to meet it and personally deliver samples. Leaving some samples on the ground this early in the mission at a cache site in the crater will give MSR another opportunity to get the precious rocks on board.
Percy has been collecting paired samples. For example, it could keep one Wildcat Ridge tube on board and drop the other on the ground. “That we are weeks from deploying Perseverance’s fascinating samples and mere years from bringing them to Earth so scientists can study them in exquisite detail is truly phenomenal,” said NASA JPL Director Laurie Leshin. “We will learn so much.”
What’s next for Percy
As thrilling as the delta has been, the rover team is looking ahead at future adventures beyond it. Perseverance could wander up the crater rim, with the team eyeing several possible paths for the climb. Its companion Ingenuity helicopter is in good health and expected to take to the air again.
NASA chose Jezero Crater for exploration because of its fascinating history of water and how the rocks there might preserve evidence of ancient life, if it existed during more habitable times on Mars. Sherloc scientist Sunanda Sharma likened the mission to a treasure hunt for organic life on another planet, saying the samples with aromatics are a clue. The Martian mystery is only just beginning to unfold.
Life on Mars? Latest Intriguing Organic Findings by NASA’s Perseverance Rover
Perseverance Workspace at ‘Skinner Ridge’: NASA’s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater. Composed of multiple images, this mosaic shows layered sedimentary rocks in the face of a cliff in the delta, as well as one of the locations where the rover abraded a circular patch to analyze a rock’s composition. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Investigates Geologically Rich Mars Terrain
The most recent discoveries provide greater detail on a region of the Red Planet that has a watery past and is yielding promising samples for the
“We picked the Jezero Crater for Perseverance to explore because we thought it had the best chance of providing scientifically excellent samples – and now we know we sent the rover to the right location,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. “These first two science campaigns have yielded an amazing diversity of samples to bring back to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign.”
Jezero Crater, which is 28 miles (45 kilometers) wide, hosts a delta – an ancient fan-shaped feature that formed about 3.5 billion years ago at the convergence of a Martian river and a lake. Perseverance is currently examining the delta’s sedimentary rocks, which formed when particles of various sizes settled in the once-watery environment. During its first science campaign, the rover surveyed the crater’s floor, finding igneous rock, which forms deep underground from magma or during volcanic activity at the surface.
Perseverance Explores the Jezero Crater Delta: NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover has arrived at an ancient delta in Jezero Crater, one of the best places on the Red Planet to search for potential signs of ancient life. The delta is an area where scientists surmise that a river once flowed billions of years ago into a lake and deposited sediments in a fan shape. Credit: NASA/
“The delta, with its diverse sedimentary rocks, contrasts beautifully with the igneous rocks – formed from crystallization of magma – discovered on the crater floor,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. “This juxtaposition provides us with a rich understanding of the geologic history after the crater formed and a diverse sample suite. For example, we found a sandstone that carries grains and rock fragments created far from Jezero Crater – and a mudstone that includes intriguing organic compounds.”
A notable rock about 3 feet (1 meter) wide has been given the name “Wildcat Ridge.” It likely formed billions of years ago as mud and fine sand settled in an evaporating saltwater lake. On July 20, the rover abraded some of the surface of Wildcat Ridge. This allowed it to analyze the area with a sophisticated scientific instrument called Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, or SHERLOC.
According to SHERLOC’s analysis, the samples include a class of organic molecules that are spatially correlated with those of sulfate minerals. Sulfate minerals found in layers of sedimentary rock can yield important details about the aqueous environments in which they formed.
Two Perseverance Sampling Locations in Jezero’s Delta: NASA’s Perseverance rover collected rock samples for possible return to Earth in the future from two locations seen in this image of Mars’ Jezero Crater: “Wildcat Ridge” (lower left) and “Skinner Ridge” (upper right). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
What Is Organic Matter?
Organic molecules consist of a wide variety of compounds made primarily of carbon and they usually also include hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In addition, they can contain other elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Although there are chemical processes that produce these molecules that don’t require life, some of these compounds are the chemical building blocks of life. The presence of these specific molecules is considered to be a possible biosignature – a substance or structure that could be evidence of past life but may also have been produced without the presence of life.
In 2013, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover found evidence of organic matter in rock-powder samples, and Perseverance has detected organics in Jezero Crater before. But unlike that previous discovery, this latest detection was made in an area where, in the distant past, sediment and salts were deposited into a lake under conditions in which life could have potentially existed. In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge, the SHERLOC instrument recorded the most abundant organic detections on the mission thus far.
“In the distant past, the sand, mud, and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” said Farley. “The fact the organic matter was found in such a sedimentary rock – known for preserving fossils of ancient life here on Earth – is important. However, as capable as our instruments aboard Perseverance are, further conclusions regarding what is contained in the Wildcat Ridge sample will have to wait until it’s returned to Earth for in-depth study as part of the agency’s Mars Sample Return campaign.”
Sample Collection and Rock Analysis at ‘Wildcat Ridge’: Composed of multiple images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, this mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores and abraded a circular patch to investigate the rock’s composition. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
The first step in the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign began when Perseverance cored its first rock sample in September 2021. Along with its rock-core samples, the rover has collected one atmospheric sample and two witness tubes. All of these are stored in the rover’s belly.
The geologic diversity of the samples already carried in the rover is so good that the rover team is looking into depositing select tubes near the base of the delta in about two months. After depositing the cache, the rover will continue its delta explorations.
“I’ve studied Martian habitability and geology for much of my career and know first-hand the incredible scientific value of returning a carefully collected set of Mars rocks to Earth,” said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “That we are weeks from deploying Perseverance’s fascinating samples and mere years from bringing them to Earth so scientists can study them in exquisite detail is truly phenomenal. We will learn so much.”
More About the Mission
Astrobiology is a key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, help pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach. This includes crewed Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Perseverance rover finds organic matter ‘treasure’ on Mars
A few of the recently collected samples include organic matter, indicating that Jezero Crater, which likely once held a lake and the delta that emptied into it, had potentially habitable environments 3.5 billion years ago.
“The rocks that we have been investigating on the delta have the highest concentration of organic matter that we have yet found on the mission,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The rover’s mission, which began on the red planet 18 months ago, includes looking for signs of ancient microbial life. Perseverance is collecting rock samples that could have preserved these telltale biosignatures. Currently, the rover contains 12 rock samples.
Digging into the delta
The site of the delta makes Jezero Crater, which spans 28 miles (45 kilometers), of particularly high interest to NASA scientists. The fan-shaped geological feature, once present where a river converged with a lake, preserves layers of Martian history in sedimentary rock, which formed when particles fused together in this formerly water-filled environment.
The rover investigated the crater floor and found evidence of igneous, or volcanic, rock. During its second campaign to study the delta over the past five months, Perseverance has found rich sedimentary rock layers that add more to the story of Mars’ ancient climate and environment.
“The delta, with its diverse sedimentary rocks, contrasts beautifully with the igneous rocks — formed from crystallization of magma — discovered on the crater floor,” Farley said.
“This juxtaposition provides us with a rich understanding of the geologic history after the crater formed and a diverse sample suite. For example, we found a sandstone that carries grains and rock fragments created far from Jezero Crater.”
The mission team nicknamed one of the rocks that Perseverance sampled as Wildcat Ridge. The rock likely formed when mud and sand settled in a saltwater lake as it evaporated billions of years ago. The rover scraped away at the surface of the rock and analyzed it with an instrument known as the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, or SHERLOC.
This rock-zapping laser functions as a fancy black light to uncover chemicals, minerals and organic matter, said Sunanda Sharma, SHERLOC scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
The instrument’s analysis revealed that the organic minerals are likely aromatics, or stable molecules of carbon and hydrogen, which are connected to sulfates. Sulfate minerals, often found sandwiched within the layers of sedimentary rocks, preserve information about the watery environments they formed in.
Organic molecules are of interest on Mars because they represent the building blocks of life, such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, as well as nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur. Not all organic molecules require life to form because some can be created through chemical processes.
“While the detection of this class of organics alone does not mean that life was definitively there, this set of observations does start to look like some things that we’ve seen here on Earth,” Sharma said. “To put it simply, if this is a treasure hunt for potential signs of life on another planet, organic matter is a clue. And we’re getting stronger and stronger clues as we’re moving through our delta campaign.”
Perseverance as well as the Curiosity rover has found organic matter before on Mars. But this time, the detection occurred in an area where life may have once existed.
“In the distant past, the sand, mud, and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” Farley said.
“The fact the organic matter was found in such a sedimentary rock — known for preserving fossils of ancient life here on Earth — is important. However, as capable as our instruments aboard Perseverance are, further conclusions regarding what is contained in the Wildcat Ridge sample will have to wait until it’s returned to Earth for in-depth study as part of the agency’s Mars Sample Return campaign.”
Returning samples to Earth
The samples collected so far represent such a wealth of diversity from key areas within the crater and delta that the Perseverance team is interested in depositing some of the collection tubes at a designated site on Mars in about two months, Farley said.
Once the rover drops off the samples at this cache depot, it will continue exploring the delta.
Future missions can collect these samples and return them to Earth for analysis using some of the most sensitive and advanced instruments on the planet. It’s unlikely that Perseverance will find undisputed evidence of life on Mars because the burden of proof for establishing it on another planet is so high, Farley said.
“I’ve studied Martian habitability and geology for much of my career and know first-hand the incredible scientific value of returning a carefully collected set of Mars rocks to Earth,” said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.
“That we are weeks from deploying Perseverance’s fascinating samples and mere years from bringing them to Earth so scientists can study them in exquisite detail is truly phenomenal. We will learn so much.”
Some of the diverse rocks in the delta were about 65.6 feet (20 meters) apart, and they each tell different stories.
One piece of sandstone, called Skinner Ridge, is evidence of rocky material that was likely transported into the crater from hundreds of miles away, representing material that the rover won’t be able to travel to during its mission. Wildcat Ridge, on the other hand, preserves evidence of clays and sulfates that layered together and formed into rock.
Once the samples are in labs on Earth, they could reveal insights about potentially habitable Martian environments, such as chemistry, temperature and when the material was deposited in the lake.
“I think it’s safe to say that these are two of the most important samples that we will collect on this mission,” said David Shuster, Perseverance return sample scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.
FDA investigating hepatitis A outbreak possibly linked to organic strawberries
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating an outbreak of hepatitis A that is possibly linked to two brands of organic strawberries that were sold at several retailers in the U.S. and Canada.
FreshKampo and HEB branded strawberries purchased by consumers between March 5 and April 25 should not be eaten, according to the FDA.
The affected strawberries, which are past their shelf life, were sold at retailers nationwide, including Aldi, HEB, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts Farmers Market, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Weis Market and WinCo Foods.
Cases of hepatitis A have been reported by consumers in California, Minnesota and Canada, all of whom purchased strawberries before falling ill. At least 17 illnesses and 12 hospitalizations have been recorded so far nationwide, according to the FDA.
Hepatitis A is a contagious virus that can ultimately cause liver disease, according to the FDA. Symptoms include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, jaundice, dark urine and pale stools. Infections typically recover within one to two weeks, though in rare cases, it may become chronic.
Strawberries should be thrown away if you are unsure what brand was purchased, or when and where they were bought, the FDA recommended. Frozen strawberries should also be thrown away.
Anyone experiencing symptoms of hepatitis A after consuming strawberries should contact their health care provider.