The rock sample collected by NASA’s robot has three key points that attract scientists, indicating that life may have existed on Mars billions of years ago.
The Perseverance rover from NASA has discovered a triangular rock that has the potential to contain fossilized microorganisms from billions of years ago, when Mars was a water-rich planet, AFP reported on July 26. This could be the most remarkable finding of the rover to date, suggesting signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.
NASA’s Perseverance rover capturing an image of the Cheyava Falls rock on Mars in July 2024. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS).
On July 21, Perseverance drilled into the mysterious rock, named “Cheyava Falls”, to collect core samples while traversing the ancient river valley of Neretva Vallis. The collected samples are carefully stored in the rover’s belly, awaiting their return to Earth for more comprehensive analysis.
“Cheyava Falls is a perplexing, complex rock and possibly the most significant one that Perseverance has ever studied. We shot lasers and X-rays at the rock, capturing images day and night from every conceivable angle,” shared Ken Farley, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Three features of the rock particularly intrigue scientists.
- The first is the white calcium sulfate veins running along the length of the rock, indicating that water once flowed through it.
- The second is a red area filled with organic compounds detected by the rover’s SHERLOC instrument, situated between these veins.
- Finally, there are tiny ivory-colored specks with black edges resembling spots on a leopard’s fur, which contain chemicals reminiscent of energy sources for ancient microorganisms, according to scans from the PIXL instrument.
“On Earth, features like these in rocks are often associated with fossil evidence of microorganisms living beneath the surface,” explained David Flannery, an astrobiologist at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and a member of the Perseverance science team.
However, the mission to confirm ancient life on Mars is still far from complete. A true assessment will only occur when Perseverance’s precious rock samples are brought back to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return program, which NASA is collaborating on with the European Space Agency (ESA) and is expected to be implemented in the 2030s.
While there are alternative explanations unrelated to microorganisms for this new discovery, it remains possible that Perseverance’s samples truly contain fossilized microorganisms, potentially making this rover a historical figure in finding the first evidence of extraterrestrial life.
