NASA's Perseverance rover has made a major discovery that could hint at ancient microbial life on Mars, providing an exciting clue in humanity’s search for life beyond Earth. According to a peer-reviewed study, a rock sample named ‘Sapphire Canyon’, collected from Jezero Crater in July 2024, contains potential biosignatures, chemical signs that might suggest a biological origin.

The sample was taken from a rock called ‘Cheyava Falls’ in the ‘Bright Angel’ formation, located in an ancient river valley named Neretva Vallis. Perseverance’s instruments, including PIXL and SHERLOC, detected organic carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, and iron-rich minerals like vivianite and greigite arranged in distinct ‘leopard spots’. On Earth, such minerals are often linked to microbial activity, where organisms use them for energy. While non-biological processes could produce similar patterns, the absence of high temperatures or acidic conditions in the rock makes a biological explanation more likely, though not certain.

"This discovery pushes the boundaries of what we thought was possible on Mars," said Joel Hurowitz, lead author and scientist at Stony Brook University. "Finding these signatures in relatively young sedimentary rocks suggests Mars could have been habitable later than we expected."

The finding challenges earlier beliefs that signs of life would only be present in older rocks, opening new possibilities for Mars’ habitability. NASA stresses that confirming a biosignature requires more study. "Astrobiological claims demand extraordinary evidence," said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Sapphire Canyon sample is one of 27 cores collected by Perseverance, which continues its mission in Jezero Crater under NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. This discovery marks a key step in the search for extraterrestrial life, with scientists now working to analyse the data and determine if the chemical signs truly point to past life on Mars.

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