Why it matters: While not evidence of life, these discoveries show that ancient Mars had complex organic chemistry, ...

NASA's Curiosity rover found organic compounds on Mars that are often produced by living things on Earth. A new study concluded that non-biological processes alone cannot explain the presence of these ...

These compounds are similar to fatty acids, which on Earth are most often produced by living things. A new study concluded that non-biological processes, like meteorites crashing into Mars, alone ...

Last year, NASA’s Curiosity rover made a fascinating discovery after boring into a suspected ancient lake bed on Mars: long-chain organic molecules, called alkanes, that could serve as a potential ...

Organic compounds found in Mars rocks are too abundant to rule out the possibility of Martian life in the red planet’s history, NASA scientists say. In March of 2025, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered ...