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Cited by 225Planetary Science and ExplorationAstro and Planetary ScienceGeochemistry and Elemental Analysis

Evidence for indigenous nitrogen in sedimentary and aeolian deposits from the Curiosity rover investigations at Gale crater, Mars

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Stern, Jennifer C., Sutter, Brad, Freissinet, Caroline, Navarro-González, Rafael, McKay, Christopher P., Archer, P. Douglas, Buch, Arnaud, Brunner, Anna E. +555 more·2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1420932112PMC PMC4394254
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Abstract

Significance: We present data supporting the presence of an indigenous source of fixed nitrogen on the surface of Mars in the form of nitrate. This fixed nitrogen may indicate the first stage in development of a primitive nitrogen cycle on the surface of ancient Mars and would have provided a biochemically accessible source of nitrogen.

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Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.1420932112

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  • Small quantities of nitrates are present in Martian sedimentary deposits.

    “Small quantities of nitrates are also present in Martian sedimentary deposits (Stern et al., 2015).”

    From Cyanobacteria and microalgae in supporting human habitation on Mars (2022) · cites this paper as Stern et al., 2015

  • The Curiosity rover investigations at Gale crater on Mars discovered indigenous N in sedimentary and aeolian deposits.

    “It is also worth noting that the Curiosity rover investigations at Gale crater on Mars discovered indigenous N in sedimentary and aeolian deposits (Stern et al., 2015), although its exact concentration and potential use for plant growth is debatable.”

    From The Potential for Lunar and Martian Regolith Simulants to Sustain Plant Growth: A Multidisciplinary Overview (2022) · cites this paper as Stern et al., 2015

  • Oxychlorine species are present in martian soil and could include (per)chlorate salts and/or peroxide species; nitrates are also present.

    “Oxychlorine species are also present in martian soil and could include (per)chlorate salts (Hecht et al., 2009; Sutter et al., 2017) and/or peroxide species (Clancy et al., 2004; Crandall et al., 2017). Nitrates are also present (Stern et al., 2015).”

    From Mars global simulant MGS-1: A Rocknest-based open standard for basaltic martian regolith simulants (2019) · cites this paper as Stern et al., 2015

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Stern, J. C., Sutter, B., Freissinet, C., Navarro-González, R., McKay, C. P., Archer, P. D., Buch, A., Brunner, A. E., Coll, P., Eigenbrode, J. L., Fairen, A. G., Franz, H. B., Glavin, D. P., Kashyap, S., McAdam, A. C., Ming, D. W., Steele, A., Szopa, C., Wray, J. J., Martín-Torres, F. J., Zorzano, M.-P., Conrad, P. G., Mahaffy, P. R., the MSL Science Team, Kemppinen, O., Bridges, N., Johnson, J. R., Minitti, M., Cremers, D., Bell, J. F., Edgar, L., Farmer, J., Godber, A., Wadhwa, M., Wellington, D., McEwan, I., Newman, C., Richardson, M., Charpentier, A., Peret, L., King, P., Blank, J., Weigle, G., Schmidt, M., Li, S., Milliken, R., Robertson, K., Sun, V., Baker, M., Edwards, C., Ehlmann, B., Farley, K., Griffes Shechet, J., Grotzinger, J., Miller, H., Newcombe, M., Pilorget, C., Rice, M., Siebach, K., Stack, K., Stolper, E., Brunet, C., Hipkin, V., Léveillé, R., Marchand, G., Sánchez, P. S., Favot, L., Cody, G., Steele, A., Flückiger, L., Lees, D., Nefian, A., Martin, M., Westall, F., Israël, G., Agard, C., Baroukh, J., Donny, C., Guillemot, P., Lafaille, V., Lorigny, E., Paillet, A., Pérez, R., Saccoccio, M., Yana, C., Armiens‐Aparicio, C., Rodríguez, J. C., Blázquez, I. C., Gómez, F. G., Gómez-Elvira, J., Hettrich, S., Malvitte, A. L., Jiménez, M. M., Martínez-Frías, J., Martín-Soler, J., - Torres, F. J. M., Jurado, A. M., Mora-Sotomayor, L., Caro, G. M., López, S. N., Peinado-González, V., Pla-García, J., Manfredi, J. A. R., Romeral-Planelló, J. J., Fuentes, S. A. S., Martinez, E. S., Redondo, J. T., Urqui-O'Callaghan, R., Mier, M.-P. Z., Chipera, S., Lacour, J.-L., Mauchien, P., Sirven, J.-B., Manning, H., Fairén, A., Hayes, A., Joseph, J., Squyres, S., Sullivan, R., Thomas, P., Dupont, A., Lundberg, A., Melikechi, N., Mezzacappa, A., DeMarines, J., Grinspoon, D., Reitz, G., Prats, B., Atlaskin, E., Genzer, M., Harri, A.-M., Haukka, H., Kahanpää, H., Kauhanen, J., Kemppinen, O., Paton, M., Polkko, J., Schmidt, W., Siili, T., Fabre, C., Wray, J., Wilhelm, M. B., Poitrasson, F., Patel, K., Gorevan, S., Indyk, S., Paulsen, G., Gupta, S., Bish, D., Schieber, J., Gondet, B., Langevin, Y., Geffroy, C., Baratoux, D., Berger, G., Cros, A., d’Uston, C., Forni, O., Gasnault, O., Lasue, J., Lee, Q.-M., Maurice, S., Meslin, P.-Y., Pallier, E., Parot, Y., Pinet, P., Schröder, S., Toplis, M., Lewin, É., Brunner, W., Heydari, E., Achilles, C., Oehler, D., Sutter, B., Cabane, M., Coscia, D., Israël, G., Szopa, C., Dromart, G., Robert, F., Sautter, V., Le Mouélic, S., Mangold, N., Nachon, M., Buch, A., Stalport, F., Coll, P., François, P., Raulin, F., Teinturier, S., Cameron, J., Clegg, S., Cousin, A., DeLapp, D., Dingler, R., Jackson, R. S., Johnstone, S., Lanza, N., Little, C., Nelson, T., Wiens, R. C., Williams, R. B., Jones, A., Kirkland, L., Treiman, A., Baker, B., Cantor, B., Caplinger, M., Davis, S., Duston, B., Edgett, K., Fay, D., Hardgrove, C., Harker, D., Herrera, P., Jensen, E., Kennedy, M. R., Krezoski, G., Krysak, D., Lipkaman, L., Malin, M., McCartney, E., McNair, S., Nixon, B., Posiolova, L., Ravine, M., Salamon, A., Saper, L., Stoiber, K., Supulver, K., Van Beek, J., Van Beek, T., Zimdar, R., French, K. L., Iagnemma, K., Miller, K., Summons, R., Goesmann, F., Goetz, W., Hviid, S., Johnson, M., Lefavor, M., Lyness, E., Breves, E., Dyar, M. D., Fassett, C., Blake, D. F., Bristow, T., DesMarais, D., Edwards, L., Haberle, R., Hoehler, T., Hollingsworth, J., Kahre, M., Keely, L., McKay, C., Wilhelm, M. B., Bleacher, L., Brinckerhoff, W., Choi, D., Conrad, P., Dworkin, J. P., Eigenbrode, J., Floyd, M., Freissinet, C., Garvin, J., Glavin, D., Harpold, D., Jones, A., Mahaffy, P., Martin, D. K., McAdam, A., Pavlov, A., Raaen, E., Smith, M. D., Stern, J., Tan, F., Trainer, M., Meyer, M., Posner, A., Voytek, M., Anderson, R. C., Aubrey, A., Beegle, L. W., Behar, A., Blaney, D., Brinza, D., Calef, F., Christensen, L., Crisp, J. A., DeFlores, L., Ehlmann, B., Feldman, J., Flesch, G., Hurowitz, J., Jun, I., Keymeulen, D., Maki, J., Mischna, M., Morookian, J. M., Parker, T., Pavri, B., Schoppers, M., Sengstacken, A., Simmonds, J. J., Spanovich, N., Juarez, M. D. L. T., Vasavada, A. R., Webster, C. R., Yen, A., Archer, P. D., Cucinotta, F., Jones, J. H., Ming, D., Morris, R. V., Niles, P., Rampe, E., Nolan, T., Fisk, M., Radziemski, L., Barraclough, B., Bender, S., Berman, D., Dobrea, E. N., Tokar, R., Vaniman, D., Williams, R. M. E., Yingst, A., Lewis, K., Leshin, L., Cleghorn, T., Huntress, W., Manhès, G., Hudgins, J., Olson, T., Stewart, N., Sarrazin, P., Grant, J., Vicenzi, E., Wilson, S. A., Bullock, M., Ehresmann, B., Hamilton, V., Hassler, D., Peterson, J., Rafkin, S., Zeitlin, C., Fedosov, F., Golovin, D., Karpushkina, N., Kozyrev, A., Litvak, M., Malakhov, A., Mitrofanov, I., Mokrousov, M., Nikiforov, S., Prokhorov, V., Sanin, A., Tretyakov, V., Varenikov, A., Vostrukhin, A., Kuzmin, R., Clark, B., Wolff, M., McLennan, S., Botta, O., Drake, D., Bean, K., Lemmon, M., Schwenzer, S. P., Anderson, R. B., Herkenhoff, K., Lee, E. M., Sucharski, R., Hernández, M. Á. D. P., Ávalos, J. J. B., Ramos, M., Kim, M.-H., Malespin, C., Plante, I., Muller, J.-P., Navarro-González, R., Ewing, R., Boynton, W., Downs, R., Fitzgibbon, M., Harshman, K., Morrison, S., Dietrich, W., Kortmann, O., Palucis, M., Sumner, D. Y., Williams, A., Lugmair, G., Wilson, M. A., Rubin, D., Jakosky, B., Balic-Zunic, T., Frydenvang, J., Jensen, J. K., Kinch, K., Koefoed, A., Madsen, M. B., Stipp, S. L. S., Boyd, N., Campbell, J. 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D., Abbey, W., Blacksberg, J., Lichtenberg, K., Milkovich, S., Schroeder, J., Scodary, A., Williford, K., Bonnet, J.-Y., Millan, M., Thuillier, F., Joulin, M., Le Deit, L., Dequaire, T., Hardy, K., Pagel, H., Parra, A., Beach, M., Magee, A., McBride, M., Kotrc, B., Berlanga, G., Ozanne, M., Lepore, K., Arevalo, R., Domagal-Goldman, S., Getty, S., Graham, H., Cropper, K., Lisov, D., Shterts, R., Dehouck, E., Battalio, M., Mason, E., McLain, H., Starr, R., Kirk, R., de Vicente-Retortillo Rubalcaba, Á., Guzewich, S., Fendrich, K., Appel, J. K., Kharytonov, A., Lohf, H., Orthen, T., Edwards, P., Kashyap, S., Pinnick, V., Carey, C., Sciascia Borlina, C., Desrousseaux, R., Fischer, E., Martínez Martínez, G., Becker, R., Liu, L., Stewart, W., Coman, E. I., Fox, V., McCullough, E., Francis, R., Matthews, T., Moore, C., & Kloos, J.
Affiliations
  • Solar System Exploration Division, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Greenbelt, MD 20771;
  • Exobiology Branch, Ames Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Moffett Field, CA 94035;
  • Jacobs Technology, Inc., Johnson Space Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Houston, TX 77058;
  • Centro de Astrobiologia, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain;
  • Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate, Johnson Space Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Houston, TX 77058;
  • School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332;
  • Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas–Universidad de Granada), 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain;
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
  • Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
  • Ames Research Center (US)
  • Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (FR)
  • Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
  • Centro de Astrobiología (ES)
  • Johnson Space Center (US)
  • Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux (FR)
  • Centre de recherche public Henri-Tudor (LU)
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2015-03-23
Volume
112
Issue
14
Pages
4245-4250
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1420932112
PMC
PMC4394254
OpenAlex
W1748094370
Cited by
225
References
46
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 7
FWCI
10.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
correction (2015-05-14)
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • elib (German Aerospace Center) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Goddard Space Flight Center
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Planetary Science and Exploration
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis
Keywords
nitrate, Gale Crater, Curiosity rover, Sample Analysis at Mars, aeolian deposits, mudstone, nitrogen cycling, nitrogen fixation, habitability, Mars surface
MeSH terms
Extraterrestrial Environment, Nitrates, Nitric Oxide, Nitrogen, Temperature, Water, Wind, Mars, Geologic Sediments

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