Red Planet Revelation: NASA Rover Uncovers Most Compelling Evidence Yet That Ancient Microbes Once Thrived on Mars

In a discovery that could rewrite history regarding the existence of life beyond our world, NASA scientists have published what they claim is the most compelling evidence to date that there was microbial life on Mars billions of years ago.

But even the organic compounds have scientists interested. The rock contains two of very fascinating minerals, vivianite, an iron phosphate, and greigite, an iron sulfide.
In addition, the breakdown produced organic carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, and oxidized iron compounds that collectively could have supplied nutrients for microbes long ago. The combination of compounds is precisely the type of life-sustaining chemistry used by microorganisms here on Earth to generate energy and exist.

The Mystery of the Leopard Spots

The most intriguing feature of the Cheyava Falls rock is perhaps that it has a spotted look. The millimeter sized spots are dark in the middle and contain light halos surrounding them, which make the rock look like leopard fur to scientists.
This provides yet another complication to the history of the rock and implies that it went through a series of chemical and geological activity episodes.

Why Scientists Remain Cautious

Having learned from previous experiences, scientists are proceeding more cautiously today. Following a year of scientific examination, the Sapphire Canyon sample is still the mission’s most promising candidate for holding evidence of ancient microbial life processes, but scientists admit that conclusive evidence will necessitate returning the sample to Earth for further examination.

demonstrating

Demonstrating that life ever did exist on Mars is incredibly challenging.Space radiation, aggressive chemicals in the soil, and geologic forces have all altered the rocks and could have deleted or masked evidence for past life.
This is why the convergence of several lines of evidence in the rock at Cheyava Falls is so important.

What Happens Next?

The Perseverance rover meticulously drilled out a core sample from the Cheyava Falls rock and placed it in a unique tube to return to Earth someday. That sample is now among dozens NASA hopes to one day return through a grand Mars Sample Return mission.
Returning these samples to Earth is essential since the rover’s instruments, as advanced as they are, have their limits.

Lab equipment on Earth is much more sensitive and can pick up on very subtle chemical and structural characteristics that could absolutely confirm or refute biological origins.
With every new find, there is more of the puzzle of whether Mars ever had life.

Whether life exists or has ever existed anywhere outside of Earth is one of humanity’s most deeply scientific quests. Were Mars to have, at one time or another, microbial life, even in its most basic forms, it would prove that life does not occur exclusively on Earth and could be universal.

The finding also would give scientists important insights into how life starts and what is necessary for it to emerge. If life independently developed on two other planets within the same solar system, that would indicate that the origin of life is fairly simple under the right conditions a result of huge significance for the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.

In addition, knowledge of ancient Martian life may illuminate the biological history of Earth as well. The two planets were warmer and more humid a billion or so years ago, and there is even a theory that life began on Mars before making the trip to Earth on meteorites ejected into space by asteroid impacts.

The Bigger Picture

The Cheyava Falls discovery is more than simply an exhilarating scientific discovery it is a tribute to humanity’s curiosity and our capacity to venture into worlds outside of our own. The Perseverance rover, a car sized robot exploring a planet millions of miles distant, is performing sophisticated chemical tests and observing that might provide answers to questions that philosophers and scientists have been asking for centuries.
Whether or not the Sapphire Canyon sample proves to have evidence of life on ancient Mars or not, it already has advanced our understanding of Mars as a planet that once was surprisingly terrestrial in its likeness, with flowing water, chemical cycles, and environments that may have had biology.

A Patient Search Continues

For the time being, the scientific world holds its breath for further scrutiny and, ultimately, the samples’ return to Earth. The leopard-spotted rock of Jezero Crater has provided humankind with its finest look thus far at the potential that life did, indeed, exist on Mars.
The chemical makeup of the rock indicates that there may have been microbes on ancient Mars, but scientists point out that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.