almost like having a geologist there. bill: i want to stress and it s important to stress could is the operative word here. could have supported life. that s not a definitive right. that is absolutely correct. what nasa is doing is looking to see if the environment on mars at one time would have been conducive, or would have been possible to support life. it s not looking for life, this is not evidence of life, it s just looking at the building blocks that we ve now found there. bill: and we are finding also that mars may have been a lot more earth-like some years ago as well. yeah. bill: what is next for the rover, what is the next step in this process? well you could say in a way that a lot of the primary mission here some of the primary mission has been accomplished of being able to identify the environment. the next thing to do is to start looking for more complex chemical compound, hopefully finding some more organic compound that would indicate the possibility of further
it created amino acids and they traveled to earth. on a related note four more asteroids past by earth tonight. we go to derrick pitts who is a chief astronomer in philadelphia. designated by nasa as an astrology ambassador. thank you for joining us. thank you for having me on. you bet. explain what these scientists did. what did they do and what did they find? well, the thought here is that it s possible that perhaps the building blocks of life came to this planet from someplace else in the galaxy around the universe. the way they get to this is astronomers able to identify
hydro again, phosphorus and carbon. if you remember back in your science classes from high school, those are the building blocks of life, not only that, but the rock has the same makeup that supports life here on earth. nasa says and i m quoting out of the study, a fundamental question of this mission is if mars could have supported a habitable environment and the answer they say is yes. i mean, curiosity, as now, landed seven months ago and it s there for a two year mission and might be longer, if the batteries last longer. it found water in different part of the planet just a couple months ago, three months ago and now they believe, megyn, are the building blocks of life. that s for nasa the holy grail, why they went up there, an astounding find and keep looking to find out if there are other parts of the planet that give them better clues to what was once there on the planet surface, pretty cool. what will they find?
it created amino acids. if they changed to earth they might have changed to more complex molecules on earth. four more asteroided passed by earth in the past week. we re going to go to derick pits. he s with franklin institute in philadelphia. good to have you back with us tonight. thank you very much for having me on, ed. explain to us what these scientists did. what did they do and what did they find? the thought here is that it s possible that perhaps the building blocks of life came to this planet from someplace else in the galaxy and around the universe. the way they goat this is astronomers have been able to identify organic compounds
it created amino acids and they traveled to earth. on a related note four more asteroids past by earth tonight. we go to derrick pitts who is a chief astronomer in philadelphia. designated by nasa as an astrology ambassador. thank you for joining us. thank you for having me on. you bet. explain what these scientists did. what did they do and what did they find? well, the thought here is that it s possible that perhaps the building blocks of life came to this planet from someplace else in the galaxy around the universe. the way they get to this is astronomers able to identify things elsewhere around the galaxy.