REAL LIFE NEWS: CURIOSITY FINDS BORON ON MARS
by Hazed
One of the reasons we keep on sending missions to Mars – apart from the fact that it’s the closest planet to Earth – is because we are tantalised by the question of whether there is life on Mars, or if there has been in the past.
So far, we haven’t found any Martians. But new discoveries are being made all the time that show life could have existed in the past. That latest has been found by the Curiosity rover. Scientists studying its data say it has found boron in a crater that is 3.8 billion years old.
Why is this significant? Well, because boron is an element that when dissolved in water can act as a catalyst in the formation of RNA, which is found in all living cells. The Gale crater, where the boron was found, has mineral veins of calcium sulfate which suggests there was once groundwater there. So boron plus water means the conditions were favourable for life.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/curiosity-has-discovered-something-that-raises-more-que-1800879035
