Life on Mars? NASA rover uncovers possible signs of ancient life
The Perseverance rover has uncovered a rock in Jezero Crater that may preserve traces of ancient life. A core sample, nicknamed Sapphire Canyon, taken from a site called Cheyava Falls contains unusual spots and patterns that scientists consider a potential biosignature, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports, citing NASA.
What was found
According to a study published in Nature, the rock from the Bright Angel formation turned out to be far from uniform. Within the fine-grained sedimentary layers, similar to mud deposits on Earth, researchers identified small inclusions nicknamed “poppy seeds” and “leopard spots.” These areas are rich in iron, phosphorus, and sulfide, and most importantly, they carry organic signals often linked on Earth to the remnants of living organisms.
The rover’s instruments, microscopes and spectrometers known as PIXL, SHERLOC, WATSON, and SuperCam, measured the minerals, detected an organic signal (the so-called “G band” in the spectrum), and mapped the chemical makeup of the spots. These findings formed the basis of the scientific paper.
What stands out is the pairing of two minerals: vivianite (an iron phosphate) and greigite (an iron sulfide). On Earth, they can form in two ways, through purely chemical reactions at high temperatures, or through microbial metabolism, when microorganisms process iron and sulfates. The discovery of this “vivianite + greigite” combination is sometimes interpreted as a footprint of iron- and sulfate-reducing microbes.
The same regions also showed elevated levels of zinc and nickel, elements often tied to biological activity. Just as important, the spots do not resemble grains carried in from elsewhere, but rather appear to be the product of chemical alteration in place, reaction fronts that make the discovery especially intriguing for astrobiology.
Life on Mars?
Researchers are carefully weighing the “null hypothesis” – the possibility that the traces found have a non-biological origin. The organics could have formed without life, and the minerals may be the result of ordinary chemical reactions. Because many of these processes can have both biological and non-biological explanations, much more data is needed before reaching a firm conclusion.
The team stresses the need for further study, and the best tools for that are here on Earth. The Sapphire Canyon core, taken from the same rock as Cheyava Falls, is slated to return to Earth for high-precision analysis beyond the rover’s capabilities. Only laboratory research can ultimately confirm or rule out a biological origin.
Finding such signatures in the relatively “young” rocks of Bright Angel came as a surprise. Earlier assumptions held that evidence of life would most likely be preserved in older, deeper layers. The discovery now suggests that favorable conditions for life and the preservation of organics may have lasted much later in Mars’ history, extending the planet’s potential habitability and broadening the scope of future searches.
Earlier, Kazinform News Agency reported on why Mars is red: New insights into the planet’s distinctive color.
