As space travel has become more common, the more we’ve become curious about the surrounding planets. One of the ones we’ve been most curious about is of course Mars. There are a few similarities to it already that we’ve discovered, but we still have so many more questions.
One such question is is there oil on Mars? Yes there is, though not in the way you’d imagine. After various tests over the years, scientists have announced they discovered truffles on Mars as of March 2020.
What does all of this mean for us that there is oil on Mars? A number of things actually which I’ll outline more below.
The Details Of The Oil
As the saying goes, where there is oil, there is usually life. And well, we’ve managed to find oil. The discovery was found by a pair of American and German astrobiologists who published their findings in a scientific journal in March 2020. (Link to Study here)
Though to be clear, they didn’t find actual oil. Rather, they found organic compounds called thiophenes that are present in things like crude oil, coal, and truffles.
Thiophene molecules include four carbon atoms and one sulfur atom in a ring-like shape. There are several ways for these to be created in the first place, many of them made through an organic way, suggesting that there could very well be life on Mars.
In fact, there could be more ecological niches on Mars that we have yet to discover.
For now though we know enough that there was indeed early life on Mars thanks to this finding.
The thiophenes in question were turned up in dried-up mud that NASA’s Curiosity Rover dug up in Mars’ Gale Crater. Curiosity landed on the Red Planet in 2012 and since then has spent rolling around Mars while periodically pausing to collect various samples. It then analyzed them and beamed the raw data back to Earth for further analysis.
The two astrobiologists – Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Jacob Heinz – then studied these numbers from Curiosity over that period of time. For this particular bit of data, they concluded that the Martian dirt held thiophenes and went to publish their findings.
Considering the ambiguity of this information, the astrobiologists aren’t able to say what exactly created the thiophenes. On Earth, thiophenes is created in a matter of eons through fossilization. Plankton living and dying over the eons before sinking to the seafloor, getting buried underneath and then pressure-cooked into oil.
It’s hard to say whether Mars has gone through that particular process. Especially since we have yet to prove that there was once water on the planet for starters.
In all likelihood, the thiophenes that were produced on Mars were likely from a non-organic process. The one scientists have considered is thermochemical sulfate reduction. This process involves heating up various compounds to hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit. How is this possible on Mars? Simple. A meteorite impact could be just enough to spark this from happening. That could be the case especially since the sample was picked up within Mars’ Gale Crater.
Though this is all speculation as Schulze-Makuch and Heinz have stated:
“We identified several biological pathways for thiophenes that seem more likely than chemical ones, but we still need proof. If you find thiophenes on Earth, then you would think they are biological, but on Mars, of course, the bar to prove that has to be quite a bit higher.”
What Do They Need To Prove There Is Actually Oil On Mars?
In order for them to prove all this, they need to find the parent molecule. In more simpler terms, they need to find tiny fragments of Mars’s equivalent of Earth’s plankton tissues that would eventually become oil after millions of years have passed.
While it sounds simple, the thing is the Curiosity Rover isn’t about heavy lifting. The nearly decade-old rover isn’t equipped with the same kind of tech that more modern rovers could have. As such, Curiosity isn’t going to be able to handle delicate samples.
You also have to consider how it gathers data as well. It gathers most through pyrolysis gas chromatography. Basically it collects samples and burns them before analyzing the resulting gas. Anything to do with tissues will of course be burned away without a trace. Not to mention the extreme heats this process uses can burn away other vital components.
Fortunately, a much better rover is in the pipeline at the moment. In 2022, the European Space Agency is planning to launch the Rosalind Franklin probe. Named after an English chemist who defined the molecular structure of DNA, Rosalind Franklin is something that’ll boast better instruments than Curiosity.
This will be needed since it’s clear if one is to find any kind of life on a planet, you need to get as close and personal to it as possible.
The only snag there is right now is that ESA’s probe will have to make the journey to Mars and be deployed safely. This shouldn’t be much of an issue as rovers have improved over the years. There is ample technology available for space agencies to put on landers and rovers these days, it’ll be easier to have them land and even examine all kinds of organic compounds beyond water.
Is There Possible Life On Mars?
Thanks to this recent development we’re getting closer and closer to determining if there is life or not on Mars. Though it’s still hard to say with absolute certainty. Again, the thiophene that was found could’ve stemmed from a meteorite impact and in which case it’s not proof of alien life.
However there are other inklings of life. Right now NASA’s InSight probe was able to find evidence of seismic activity right underneath Mars’ surface. This could point to ongoing volcanism. Why this matters is that volcanoes are the “spark” of the evolutionary process.
NASA is also making other efforts in other areas as well to look for life too. NASA sent out a probe to one of Jupiter’s moon Europa which could have a subsurface ocean that is able to support life. NASA has also been checking Enceladus as well, a moon of Saturn that has its own saltwater ocean.
These are only the tip of the iceberg for various missions that the space community is planning on taking.As technology continues to improve and expand, there is further possibilities of us finding life.
Is The Oil Useful?
Even though we found oil on the planet, the big question is how useful is it? Honestly not that much aside from it possibly being proof of life. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks oxygen. This is important since we use Earth’s abundance of oxygen in order to react to oil to create combustion. If oxygen isn’t there, there is no combustion at all.
This is further proven when you look at Titan which has lakes of liquid ethane that could be turned into fuel. It’s also been hit by many meteorites in the past and oddly none of them have ever caught fire. That’s because oxygen would be needed for this.
Because of these facts it’s hard to say what oil on Mars could be used for for the time being, even well after we land on it depending on the circumstances surrounding that.
Final Thoughts
It’s exciting to see that there could possibly be life on Mars. Right now the question is more of whether our technology is advanced enough now to see if we can prove there is life there or not. Regardless, there is plenty of hope out there that we’ll uncover more answers to the many questions we have about Mars as the years go on.