🌅 The Clearest Sign of Martian Life Yet

SOURCE

Hurowitz et al. (2025)

WHAT TO KNOW

• Data and images from NASA’s Perseverance rover suggest recently discovered rocks within Jezero crater underwent chemical processes that left behind distinct compounds and textures in the rocks that could represent potential biosignatures. NASA says it’s the clearest sign yet that life once existed on Mars.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Astronomers pulled a core sample from an arrowhead shaped rock roughly 3 feet long by 2 feet wide named Cheyava Falls discovered in July 2024. The 3.5 billion-year-old rock is littered with pale spots and other features astronomers believe are the remnants of ancient microbial life that once existed within a vast Martian lake. While outside scientists will continue to probe the data to determine whether other explanations are possible, the scientists involved in the present study couldn’t find any explanation other than ancient life.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The sample is now stored in a sealed tube safely tucked away inside Perseverance and is among those prioritized for a proposed Mars Sample Return mission by NASA. While the Trump administration’s latest budget would cancel the proposed mission to bring the samples home, China has a return mission planned for 2028 that Beijing recently opened to international cooperation.