NASA has announced that its Perseverance Mars rover spotted „potential biosignatures“ in an ancient dry riverbed last year.
NASA has announced that its Perseverance Mars rover spotted „potential biosignatures“ in an ancient dry riverbed last year.
Samples collected from a rock dubbed „Cheyava Falls“ contain a structure that hints at the possibility of having a biological origin, according to the space agency, but more research needs to be completed to draw any conclusions about the presence of life on the Red Planet.
„The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars“, said interim NASA administrator Sean Duffy in a statement, arguing this is the „closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars.“
The rover first encountered the rock in July 2024 while exploring a rocky outcropping, called the Bright Angel rock formation, on the edge of an ancient river valley, which scientists believe was carved into the Martian surface by a rushing river billions of years ago.
Perseverance’s science instruments revealed layers of clay and silt, which are „excellent preservers of past microbial life“ on Earth, according to NASA.
„The combination of chemical compounds we found in the Bright Angel formation could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms“, said Stony Brook University associate professor Joel Hurowitz, coauthor of a new paper published in the journal Nature about the finding, in the statement.
