NASA representatives reported about the "epoch-making" discovery on Mars two weeks ago, on November 20, but there was no sensation.
“We've got data that will go into history books,” Curiosity's chief investigator John Grotzinger said in an interview with US National Public Radio. - They look really good.
The sensational recognition appeared after the rover - after several attempts - scooped up the Martian soil with a scoop and sent it into itself for chemical analysis, which was carried out using the SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) onboard laboratory facility. But what the analysis showed was kept secret until now. Many experts assumed that we are talking about organic molecules - the precursors of life. The sensation was promised to be announced at the opening of the 45th Congress of the American Geophysical Union on December 3 in San Francisco.
On the appointed day, the entire scientific world became quiet in anticipation. But, alas, the sensation did not take place.
“Curiosity has completed the first full analysis of Martian soil collected in the vicinity of the Rocky Nest - the accumulation of sand and stones in Gale Crater, where the rover is now located,” researcher Paul Mahaffey from NASA Space Flight Center reported at a press conference. Goddard in Greenbelt, Maryland. - And, unfortunately, I did not find any organic substances - ingredients for life.
It turns out that there is no life on Mars. And what is there? Here are the first results of the analysis of Martian sand, according to the NASA website
1. Water, the molecules of which were found in soil samples, turned out to be five times heavier than Earth's due to the high content of deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen.
2. The soil on Mars is half volcanic rocks mixed with non-crystalline components such as glass.
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3. Discovered a large number of different chemicals in low concentrations: substances containing sulfur and chlorine. However, experts are not yet sure that these compounds are completely Martian in origin. It is possible that they were "brought" to Mars from Earth by the rover itself.
By the way, Curiosity himself writes on Twitter. And in his last tweet, he urged fans to wait a bit: “We are waiting for new research. Until then, patience. Patience is my middle name."
The rover will have to work on the Red Planet in the area of Gale Crater for two years. Maybe he really will find something.
As for the premature "sensational" confession of Grotzinger, the chief investigator of the mission justifies himself by saying that the journalists have mixed everything up. Grotzinger actually called the mission of Curiosity itself "epoch-making", and journalists transferred this definition to the last samples collected by the apparatus.