Mineral matrix effects on pyrolysis products of kerogens infer difficulties in determining biological provenance of macromolecular organic matter at Mars

SH Royle, TL Salter, JS Watson, MA Sephton - Astrobiology, 2022 - liebertpub.com
Ancient martian organic matter is likely to take the form of kerogen-like recalcitrant
macromolecular organic matter (MOM), existing in close association with reactive mineral …

Pyrolysis of carboxylic acids in the presence of iron oxides: implications for life detection on missions to Mars

SH Royle, JSW Tan, JS Watson, MA Sephton - Astrobiology, 2021 - liebertpub.com
The search for, and characterization of, organic matter on Mars is central to efforts in
identifying habitable environments and detecting evidence of life in the martian surface and …

Survivability of 1‐Chloronapthalene During Simulated Early Diagenesis: Implications for Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Detection on Mars

SH Royle, J Tan, SP Kounaves… - Journal of Geophysical …, 2018 - Wiley Online Library
All missions to Mars which have attempted to detect organic molecules have detected
simple chlorohydrocarbons, the source of which has yet to be firmly established. This study …

Transformation of cyanobacterial biomolecules by iron oxides during flash pyrolysis: implications for Mars life-detection missions

SH Royle, JS Watson, MA Sephton - Astrobiology, 2021 - liebertpub.com
Answering the question of whether life ever existed on Mars is a key goal of both NASA's
and ESA's imminent Mars rover missions. The obfuscatory effects of oxidizing salts, such as …