Additional Study Needed To Confirm Whether Life Was Present

NASA announced on September 10 that its Perseverance Mars rover had collected a rock sample from an ancient dry riverbed in Jezero Crater that may contain preserved evidence of ancient microbial life on the planet.

The sample was obtained from a rock named “Cheyava Falls” in 2024, and the sample, named “Sapphire Canyon,” contains potential biosignatures according to a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Nature. The sample was taken while the rover was exploring the “Bright Angel” formation within the Jezero Crater.

In the search for life on Mars or the Moon, a “potential biosignature” is a substance or structure that may have a biological origin but more extensive study and data are needed before any conclusion can be determined about the absence or presence of life.

Sean P. Duffy, acting NASA Administrator said, “This finding by Perseverance, launched under President Trump in his first term, is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars. NASA’s commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue as we pursue our goal of putting American boots on Mars’ rocky soil.”

Nicky Fox, Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington said, “This finding is the direct result of NASA’s effort to strategically plan, develop, and execute a mission able to deliver exactly this type of science — the identification of a potential biosignature on Mars. With the publication of this peer-reviewed result, NASA makes this data available to the wider science community for further study to confirm or refute its biological potential.”

The science instruments on board the Perseverance Mars rover found that the formation where the sample was taken from contains sedimentary rocks composed of clay and silt, which on Earth are excellent preservers of past life. They also contain rich amounts of organic carbon, sulfur, oxidized iron (rust), and phosphorus.

Joel Hurowitz of Stony Brook University, New York and lead author of the Nature paper, is a scientist working on the Perseverance project.

He said, “The combination of chemical compounds we found in the Bright Angel formation could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms. But just because we saw all these compelling chemical signatures in the data didn’t mean we had a potential biosignature. We needed to analyze what that data could mean.”

FMI:  science.nasa.gov/ , www.nature.com/