Curiosity Rover on Mars Drills Hole, Strikes Oil!!!

Oil Discovered On Mars
I recently wrote a post on Facebook about a discovery recently announced by NASA and JPL.  The Mars Curiosity rover drilled a hole in a mudstone in Gale Crater and analyzed the sample with its chemical instruments.  The analysis showed trace amounts of C10, C11 and C12 hydrogen-saturated carbon chains.  Oil.  Black Gold.  Texas Tea.

Cumberland mudstone drill-site.  I should write headlines for supermarket tabloids.

The Curiosity Rover is exploring a former lakeshore in Gale Crater, located near the Martian equator.  The crater formed between 3.8 and 3.5 billion years ago, and was periodically filled with water from the time of its formation until about 2 billion years ago.  Scientists studying the spectra of minerals from Mars orbit identified the crater as a likely location to find shoreline deposits and evidence of former life. 

Artist's impression of Gale Crater.  Image credit Kevin Gill; references below.

After I posted my note, a Facebook friend immediately asked the most important question, “For real? Doesn’t that mean there was life?”  I gave a waffling answer which probably left Tom unsatisfied.  Certainly, on Earth, oil is the product of thermal alteration of biological materials, primarily algae, leading to the formation of crude oil.  But there are non-biological processes in some hydrothermal environments that can lead to the formation of these molecules.

Curiosity drilled this sample in 2013, and the immediate results showed small carbon molecules.  The rover stored portions of the sample for later analysis.  Since then, NASA/JPL conducted experiments trying to replicate the origin and detection of these molecules.  NASA scientists developed a new procedure to test for larger carbon molecules, and reconfigured the equipment on the rover to test the stored sample.  (A third sample exists on the rover for future testing.)  The recent test with reconfigured equipment showed the presence of the large carbon molecules.  NASA/JPL now think that the large carbon molecules were produced from fatty acids in the original sample, which were altered to carbon chains during heating for the chemical analysis.  It is possible to produce fatty acids in hydrothermal environments in earth environments, so the finding is not yet diagnostic of life.  

To be clear, the concentration of the long-chain carbon molecules is very small; on the order of one part to ten parts in 100 billion.  (The concentration given in the press release is given as tens of pico-moles.)  But this is within the sensitivity of the rover’s instrumentation.  

It’s hard to generate carbon chains from water and carbon dioxide using non-biologic processes.  Long carbon chains are even more difficult.  That’s why large and complex carbon molecules are considered diagnostic of life, termed biosignatures.  Lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids and proteins are considered biosignatures, among others.  These would be considered proof of former life.

Intriguingly, the detection of C12 is at the upper limit of the capability of the instrumentation on Curiosity.  It’s possible that longer chains existed in the sample.  Also, JPL scientists note that non-biological processes usually produce shorter fatty acids than 12 carbon atoms, but that the C12 molecule detected in the Martian sample was more abundant than C10 or C11.  

Proof
We use different standards of proof depending on what we are trying to prove and why.  In civil cases, we use the standard of preponderance of evidence; more than 50% of evidence is considered sufficient proof.  In criminal cases, we require a higher standard, termed reasonable certainty.  Reasonable certainty is not well defined, but is generally understood and used by juries.  In science, the standard of proof is usually held to be an unequivocal finding, meaning that all evidence-based alternatives have been examined and refuted.  Mathematical proof is a higher standard, with a demonstration that it is not possible for the assertion to be false.  

For the Mars samples, I would say that the preponderance of evidence is that Curiosity has discovered chemical proof of extraterrestrial life.  The sample was taken on an ancient lakeshore, which is a likely place for algal growth.  There is little evidence of local hydrothermal activity, which would be the only alternative explanation for the occurrence of long-carbon chain molecules.  (Although the rover has discovered elemental sulfur nearby, of unknown origin.)  Other chemicals found nearby are consistent with life, including chlorinated and sulfur-containing carbon compounds, carbon-ring compounds (aromatics) including benzoic acid, nitrates and elemental sulfur.  The relative abundance of C12 also points towards a biologic origin for the molecules.

But the finding is slightly less than reasonable certainty, and is not yet unequivocal.  Additional sampling and testing are needed to prove the existence of more complex carbon molecules, or to disprove the possibility of non-biologic generation of long-chain carbon molecules.  

Astronomer Carl Sagan was preoccupied with the planet Mars and alien life from a young age, something that led to his stunning career.  Sagan also coined the aphorism, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”  So, what is an extraordinary claim?  An extraordinary claim may be: 1)  something that violates known scientific knowledge or processes, 2)  something that is within the realm of scientific possibility, but with an extremely low likelihood of occurrence,  or 3) something that is outside the envelope of prior experience.  The possibility of ancient life on Mars is in the third category of extraordinary claim.   This would be the first discovery of extraterrestrial life, and therefore requires extraordinary evidence, stronger than what has been discovered to date by Curiosity’s instruments.  

In the official press release announcing the discovery of large carbon chain molecules, NASA described the molecules as “pre-biotic”.  I think that ultimately, further research will prove the existence of ancient primitive life on Mars.  Given the evidence, I would be surprised if the discovered chemistry is not the result of self-replicating processes sufficient to be considered life.  It’s a thought worthy of contemplation, that primitive life may have lived on Mars simultaneously with cyanobacteria or algae on earth.  But on Mars, through planetary bad luck, the atmosphere and oceans were stripped away by the solar wind, while Earth was protected by its magnetic field.  And so, we, the descendants of cyanobacteria on Earth, are sending interplanetary probes to Mars, instead of the other way around.
 

Image of a city on Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom (Mars).  Image credit Woodrow Edgar Nichols, Jr.
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Afterword
NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars in 2004.  At the time, I was working as an international exploration petroleum geologist for a major oil company.  I had previously studied images of Mars taken from NASA orbiters, and noted clear signs of water channels, and I was quite interested in the new mission.  Opportunity landed in Eagle crater, and its first photos showed an outcrop of a likely fluvial sandstone.  I was gob-smacked.  I printed a photo and taped it to my office door, without explanation.  The Vice-President of exploration wandered down the hallway, and curious, asked me where the photo was from.  I told him it was Mars.  We agreed that the photo looked like sandstone, and I joked that maybe someday we would find oil on Mars.  He didn't seem amused.  But twenty years later, here we are.  

An outcrop of fluvial sandstone in Eagle Crater on Mars, viewed from the Opportunity Rover landing place.  Higher resolution photos were available in 2004.

References
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-curiosity-rover-detects-largest-organic-molecules-found-on-mars/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2420580122
https://www.sci.news/space/long-chain-alkanes-mars-13778.html
https://earthsky.org/upl/2025/01/lake-Gale-crater-Mars-artist-illustration-Kevin-GillDecember-10-2014.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/15369584444/
https://www.erbzine.com/mag33/3307.html

Current Topography of Gale Crater, with shading suggesting former lake level.  Image credit Ryan Anderson.

Ukraine, Independence, Yorktown and France

 President Trump, Vice-President Vance, and prime minister without portfolio Elon Musk have all said, in one way or another, that President Zelenskiy of Ukraine does not want peace.

Of course not.  That’s why they are fighting.  The victim of aggression can usually have peace, of a kind, by surrender.  But Ukraine is fighting for other values that Americans hold dear: independence, freedom, democracy and prosperity.  As a sovereign nation, Ukraine has a right to pursue trade associations and political alliances of its own choice, not the choice of its larger neighbor to the east.  This is true regardless of the historical ties (and historical conflicts) between Russia and Ukraine.  In 1991, Ukraine voted for independence by a 92% to 8% margin, in an election with 84% turnout.  Those numbers put most American elections to shame.  At that time, Ukraine became a sovereign and independent state.  In 1994, Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in an agreement with Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom.  In exchange, the other parties agreed to respect Ukraine’s 1991 borders, to seek redress in the UN Security Council if Ukraine’s borders were violated, and to refrain from economic coercion of Ukraine.  

From 1991 until 2014, there was extensive meddling by Russia in Ukrainian affairs, including elections.  My company maintained an office in Kiev for about a decade, working with Ukrainian authorities to establish a legal framework for oil and gas production in Ukraine, without success.  Our company representative told me that these efforts were sabotaged in the Ukrainian parliament by Russian interference, as Russia wanted to keep Ukraine dependent on Russian energy exports.

The crisis between Russia and Ukraine developed after Ukraine signed a free trade and association agreement with the European Union, in 2013.  The agreement came after two decades of rapprochement with the EU, and a year of detailed negotiations.  The agreement was overwhelming approved in the Ukraine parliament, but pro-Russian President Yanukovych refused to sign the deal.  President Yanukovych was deposed by the parliament in the ensuing crisis.  Russia invaded the bordering provinces and Crimea the following year.  European negotiators expressed complete shock that the Russians reacted as they did to the free trade agreement.  The time since the original Russian invasion has been marked by cease-fire agreements, each later broken by Russia with new military action.  

Ukraine has been a vassal state to Russian since Tsarist times.  It was robbed and starved in the Holodmor famine of the 1930s.  Its independent energy development was stifled in the 1970s, following the discovery of natural gas in the Donbass, and again through Russian political meddling after independence.  

Before peace, Ukraine wants independence, freedom, and the opportunity for prosperity through independent association with Europe.  After these are secured, then Ukraine will be ready for peace, with Western guarantees of security.  These are the same things that a fledgling United States wanted in 1776.  

In 1781, after five years of grinding war with Britain, George Washington was marching his army south to confront General Cornwallis in South Carolina.  At Philadelphia, the entire army threatened to desert, unless they were paid in coin, instead of Continental paper money.  The French representative paid the American soldiers in gold coin, using half of his monetary reserve.  The French also provided 10,800 foot soldiers, a larger force than the American army.  A fleet of 29 warships fought and defeated the British fleet, and blocked reinforcement of Cornwallis’ army.  After a month-long siege, General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington, and the Revolutionary War was over.  

Without the assistance of the French, there would have been no Revolutionary War victory.  There would be no July 4th, no Star-Spangled Banner, no American government.  No one can say what the future would have been, but we would not have achieved independence on our own.  

Let there be no doubt that Russia is a tyrannical country.  Russia is a country where investigative journalists and opposition politicians are brazenly murdered with the apparent complicity of the secret police.  Russia is a country where high-level business executives are flung from high-rise windows, or hacked to death with axes, along with their wives and children.  Russia is a country where children are separated from their parents because a child expresses a desire for peace at school.  Russia is a country where perceived enemies are hunted down in exile and murdered.  Russia is a country where other politicians are poisoned, imprisoned or murdered in prison.  Russia is a country where lawyers are imprisoned for simply representing an opposition or anti-corruption client, or suffer fractured skulls during police interrogation.  Russia is a country without free media, where all messaging is controlled by the government, and where alternative sources of information on the Internet are banned.  Russia is a country without a right to free speech, where even carrying a blank sign can result in a prison term.  Russia is a country whose closest allies are North Korea, Iran, China, Cuba and Venezuela, all of whom are antithetical to American values and American interests.  

Ukraine is in a similar fight for its independence, freedom, territorial integrity and sovereignty.  Ukraine has a sovereign right to choose between freedom, democracy, free speech and free and fair markets, or to submit to Russian tyranny.  We owe it to the people of Ukraine to help them defend their lands, their people, and their independence from Russian tyranny, just as France assisted the newborn United States gain our independence from Britain.