NASA ’s Perseverance rover was sent to Mars with one large , challenging aim : to see if biography could ever have thrived on our neighboring planet . Although there ’s unlikely to be anything alive on Mars now , the planet was once similar to Earth , with athicker atmosphereandplentiful wateron its Earth’s surface . And during this clip , gazillion of years ago , microbial biography could have survived there . Now , Perseverance has located some tantalizing indications of possible microbic life sentence — although it ’s too betimes for scientists to be sure .
The rover has been taking sample distribution by drilling into the martian rock as it travels , and it ’s a late sampling from an area called the Cheyava Falls that has ignited interest . The rock candy , gather on July 21 , has indications of chemical substance signatures and physical structure that could potentially have been organize by spirit , such as the mien of constituent compound . These carbon copy - based molecules are thebuilding blocks of life;however , they can also be spring by other processes .
Such compounds have been discover on Mars before , so what make this peculiar rock so exciting is the “ leopard spots ” that are present in it . These millimeter - sized splodge of lighter material have a black doughnut around them that contains atomic number 26 and phosphate , and alike mark in rocks on Earth have been created by past living .
“ These spots are a big surprise,”saidDavid Flannery , an astrobiologist and member of the Perseverance skill squad from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia . “ On Earth , these types of lineament in rocks are often associated with the fossilise phonograph record of germ living in the subsurface . ”
However , just because these marking could have been made by life history does n’t mean that they definitely were . They could also have been make by chemical reactions and the flow of water leaving behind mineral repository .
Another strange aspect of this rock is the presence of a different mineral called olivine , which forms from magma and was a surprising discovery for the science team . They are currently consider whether the mineral could have been added to the rock at very high temperatures , and whether this operation could have contributed to the leopard position .
When value evidence of such an important question as the presence of life , scientists exploit to rule out all other explanations before they make pronouncements . The steps fordetermining if life sentence existedfrom a rock record are complex , and the unusual facets of this particular tilt made determination hard .
“ Cheyava Falls is the most enigmatical , complex , and potentially important rock candy yet inquire by Perseverance , ” sound out Ken Farley , Perseverance task scientist of Caltech . “ On the one hand , we have our first compelling detection of organic material , distinctive colourful slur indicative of chemic reactions that microbial life could use as an energy source , and clear grounds that water — necessary for aliveness — once passed through the rock . On the other hired man , we have been unable to determine incisively how the stone organize and to what extent nearby rocks may have heated Cheyava Falls and contributed to these features . ”
To be confident that these marks were produced by lifespan , scientist would require to perform more complex analysis than are possible using the bird of passage . NASA scientist are pointing to this as reason for the Mars Sample Return project , which drive to collect sample from Mars and take them back to Earth for cogitation .
“ We have zap that rock’n’roll with lasers and X - shaft of light and see it literally Clarence Shepard Day Jr. and nighttime from just about every slant imaginable , ” Farley say . “ Scientifically , Perseverance has nothing more to give . To fully sympathize what really happened in that Martian river valley at Jezero Crater billion of year ago , we ’d desire to bring the Cheyava Falls sample back to Earth , so it can be studied with the herculean official document usable in laboratories . ”
