Reduced carbon found in Mars meteorites

BBC : From the study of 11 Martian meteorites, Andrew Steele of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and colleagues have found so-called reduced carbon, which could have been created by volcanic activity on Mars. Reduced carbon is chemically bonded to hydrogen or itself. “The storage of reduced carbon molecules on Mars occurred throughout the planet’s history and might have been similar to processes that occurred on the ancient Earth,” said Steele, lead author of a paper published online in Science. The finding is the first step toward the scientists’ goal of determining whether Mars could ever have supported life. They hope to gather more information from the next Mars mission—the Curiosity rover is in transit and scheduled to land on the red planet later this year.