They’re the core components of life as we know it on Earth, though they can even develop abiologically. Although this isn’t the smoking gun proving once and for all that Mars once hosted life - these compounds may have additionally developed in nonbiological ways - the outcomes hint at surprisingly advanced organic conditions for the “key building blocks for life” on Earth’s neighbor. It’s one of many almost certainly regions to reveal leftover signs of life on Mars. If you buy something via one of these hyperlinks, we could earn an affiliate fee. Some of our tales embody affiliate hyperlinks. “They are an exciting clue for astrobiologists since they are often considered building blocks of life,” paper co-creator Joseph Razzell Hollis, a postdoctoral fellow at London’s Pure History Museum, stated to Newsweek. Getting our fingers on intact Mars rocks, rigorously stored and protected from contamination, will be invaluable to planetary science,” Razzell Hollis instructed Newsweek. They’ll should look forward to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which isn’t expected to launch from Earth until at the least the late 2020s. Still, the journey should be worth the wait.