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Diverse organic molecules on Mars revealed by the first SAM TMAH experiment

NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered more than 20 diverse organic compounds in 3.5-billion-year-old rock samples from Mars’ Gale Crater using the first-ever SAM TMAH experiment on another planet, including a nitrogen-bearing molecule structurally similar to DNA building blocks never before detected on Mars. The findings show Mars can preserve complex organic material for billions of years, supporting the idea the planet once had habitable conditions, though the compounds alone do not prove past life existed there.