Indigenous and exogenous organics and surface-atmosphere cycling inferred from carbon and oxygen isotopes at Gale crater

Franz, H. B.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Webster, C. R.; Flesch, G. J.; Raaen, E.; Freissinet, C.; Atreya, S. K.; House, C. H.; McAdam, A. C.; Knudson, C. A.; Archer, P. D., Jr.; Stern, J. C.; Steele, A.; Sutter, B.; Eigenbrode, J. L.; Glavin, D. P.; Lewis, J. M. T.; Malespin, C. A.; Millan, M.; Ming, D. W.; Navarro-Gonzalez, R.; Summons, R. E.
2020
NATURE ASTRONOMY
DOI
10.1038/s41550-019-0990-x
The pyrolysis experiments of the SAM instrument on board the Curiosity rover reconstruct the origin of organics at Gale crater. Some of them come from meteorites, but others have been formed in situ, with widespread past formation of carbonates via cryogenesis. More than 0.5 bar of CO2 might have precipitated from the atmosphere.