Nasa's Mars Curiosity rover celebrates finding molecules never before seen on the planet

A rock which was found by Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover has revealed new secrets about the red planet.

The rock was uncovered by the rover back in 2020 and has since been tested and studied by a team of scientists over the last six years.

They learnt that it is made up of 21 different molecules - the biggest mixture of molecules ever discovered on the planet.

Out of the 21 molecules identified by scientists, seven of them were found for the very first time on Mars.

The discovery is exciting because it confirms the theory that ancient Mars had the right chemistry to support life.

"This is Curiosity and our team at their best" said the mission's project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"It took dozens of scientists and engineers to locate this site, drill the sample, and make these discoveries with our awesome robot,"

"This collection of organic molecules once again increases the prospect that Mars offered a home for life in the ancient past." he said.

The rock sample, nicknamed 'Mary Anning 3' - after the famous fossil collector and palaeontologist - was collected from an area called Mount Sharp, which was once covered by lakes and streams billions of years ago.

Over those billions of years the area has dried up leaving it full of clay which is good at preserving things for a long time.

The rock sample was collected by the Curiosity rover, who drilled down into the rocky surface, before grinding it up into a powder to study.

The rover then analysed the rock dust sample using a special mini science lab in it's belly called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM).

As part of the scientific tests, the rock powder was heated to a super high-temperature, to release any gases in it, which can be studied to figure out what the rock is made of.

Curiosity also did some "wet chemistry" tests on the sample.

It dropped the rock dust into a small cup of special liquid called tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) which allowed chemical reactions to take place that can break up larger molecules into smaller ones, which would be difficult to find and identify otherwise.

From the test results, scientists were able to find nitrogen heterocycle - which is a ring of carbon atoms that includes nitrogen, and is thought to be an early version of RNA and DNA, which are the key building blocks or instructions for life.

"Nitrogen heterorcycles have never been found before on the Martian surface or confirmed in Martian meteorites." said lead scientist Amy Williams from the University of Florida.

They also found benzothiophene - a molecule that's been found in many meteorites.

Some scientists believe that these meteorites, could have brought these special molecules and building blocks for life with them as they soared across the solar system.