Mars Rover Finds Signs Of Ancient Life In Massive Discovery

The Mars rover also found millimeter-length splotches surrounded by black rings that contain iron and phosphate, which could also indicate life. These rings around the spots form on Earth from chemical reactions caused by microbes.

David Flannery, a member of the Perseverance team, said, “On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface.”

Another scientist on the rover team, Morgan Cable, confirmed that these three things have never been seen together on Mars before. The Mars rock that could contain signs of ancient life was dubbed “Cheyava Falls” by the team and sits at the edge of a massive ancient river bed called Neretva Vallis.

Scientists have theorized that this river was carved out when water was running through the area into the Jezero Crater.

It’s possible that Cheyava Falls is the result of mud getting dropped into the river valley. The mud could have theoretically contained organic compounds, and then water could have soaked the rock later, forming the calcium sulfate and black-ringed spots.

This is one possible explanation that would prove Mars had life on it, but without further analysis, it can’t be said for sure.

Another possible explanation for the calcium sulfate is the rock being exposed to extremely high temperatures, making the reaction non-biological. But, that may not explain the black-ringed spots.

One thing is for sure – the Mars rover team hasn’t seen this before, and the possibility of confirming life is certainly exciting.

The Mars Perseverance rover has done essentially everything it can to help the team analyze the rock for life at this point, so now the team is waiting patiently to get the sample back to Earth to look at it with more advanced instruments.

The only issue now is waiting for the Mars Sample Return program to deliver the samples, but that might take a bit.

The Mars Sample Return mission costs have ballooned to $11 billion and the actual return process is still in the design and planning stage. The issue now is figuring out how to get these precious Mars samples that could contain life safely back to Earth, with the main idea being Perseverance bringing the samples to a vehicle or retrieval device that can deliver the samples to a spacecraft around Mars’ orbit.

That spacecraft would then make its journey back to Earth where it can deliver the samples, and the team can finally get their hands on the many rich samples Perseverance has collected.

While the Mars rover hasn’t completely proven the existence of life on the planet, it seems we’re getting closer than ever. We’ll just have to wait for those samples to get delivered. Fortunately, NASA has plenty of external and internal research teams and companies working on the project.

Source: Space.com