The Curiosity Rover mission found signs of organic materials on Mars dating back about 3.5 billion years. “The findings demonstrate that the planet was both warm and wet, and that it preserved organics,” said Raymond Arvidson, a NASA Mars science researcher and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Curiosity found the new evidence preserved in rocks, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on Mars. The new findings – organic molecules in sedimentary rocks, as well as seasonal variations in the levels of methane in the atmosphere – are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet’s surface and subsurface.