Organic Compounds Found on Mars!

That's right, the building blocks of life have been found on Mars.  Time will tell if these compounds are indigenous to Mars or if they came from meteorites.  If it's the former, that's really exciting news.  Still, even if there are organics on Mars, the environment is not well-suited to supporting those compounds.

To me, and I'm just spit-balling here, it seems increasingly likely that Mars used to be capable of supporting life but has since lost that ability with a thinning atmosphere that allows cosmic rays to penetrate and destroy organic compounds.  Whether or not intelligent life existed, I don't know.  Maybe not.  Regardless, it's still fun to think about.

Mars features tangentially in my new novel The Azure Key.  I'm hard at work on the second installment, but later this year I plan to put out the first in a related series that deals directly with the Red Planet.  Mars has fascinated me since I was a child, when was convinced I would be an astronaut.  The series I'm planning will use Mars as a setting but it will be very much character-driven.  That said, I still want to explore possibilities such as organic compounds on Mars and the possibilities the Red Planet holds for the human race in the future.  If you're also interested in these kinds of questions, I'd encourage you to pick up my latest novel, The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key.


Source: Discovery News. 12/16/14.  Irene Klotz. http://news.discovery.com/space/wait-theres-more-curiosity-confirms-organics-on-mars-141216.htm?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=DNewsSocial