The Cell and the Sum of Its Parts: Patterns of Complexity in Biosignatures as Revealed by Deep UV Raman Spectroscopy.

ABSTRACT: The next NASA-led Mars mission (Mars 2020) will carry a suite of instrumentation dedicated to investigating Martian history and the in situ detection of potential biosignatures. SHERLOC, a deep UV Raman/Fluorescence spectrometer has the ability to detect and map the distribution of many organic compounds, including the aromatic molecules that are fundamental building blocks of life on Earth, at concentrations down to 1 ppm. The mere presence of organic compounds is not a biosignature: there is widespread distribution of reduced organic molecules in the Solar System. Life utilizes a select few of these molecules creating conspicuous enrichments of specific molecules that deviate from the distribution expected from purely abiotic processes. The detection of far from equilibrium concen

SUBMITTER: Sapers HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6527968 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature