Perseverance finds rock on Mars with signs of life on Earth

The NASA Perseverance rover team reported an intriguing find on the Red Planet. The six-wheeled geologist, roving Mars, discovered an interesting rock on its surface, resembling the coloration of a leopard. On Earth, such markings on rocks are often left by microbes. While this is not yet solid evidence of biological life on ancient Mars, it hints at the possibility and provides a promising direction for further search.

On an arrowhead-shaped rock named Cheyava Falls, distinct structures — veins and edged spots — were observed, which on Earth are associated with microbial life. The veins are deposits of calcium sulfate, indicating the presence of flowing water at this location millions of years ago. Dozens of millimeter-sized spots found there contain iron and phosphates — signs of microbial life on Earth and potentially similar biological activity on Mars.

The rover collected a core sample from the intriguing rock as its 22nd specimen, but whether these samples will ever be delivered to Earth is currently a pressing question for NASA. It's a relief that NASA's engineering team managed to repair the SHERLOC spectrometer on the rover's robotic arm. This Raman and luminescence-based instrument can roughly determine the chemical and molecular composition of samples — which is better than nothing.

The rover is currently moving along the channel of an ancient stream in Jezero Crater, where evidence suggests there was once water. This is an excellent place to search for signs of ancient biological life on Mars, and there are increasingly more indications of past life (as we understand it) on the Red Planet.