NASA released a significant update from the Perseverance Mars rover on Wednesday, focusing on a particularly juicy tidbit for those watching from home: A small rock sample called Sapphire Canyon showed signs of potential biosignatures, or ancient alien life that may have once grown on Mars.
That’s possible because of the unique location where Perseverance located the sample in July 2024. It came from a rock named Cheyava Falls. This particular rock is in Jezero Crater, home to an ancient dry riverbed. In other words, water once flowed abundantly in this spot, one of the most essential requirements for life as we know it.
While exploring, Perseverance’s cameras picked up colorful, leopard-like spots that eventually led to the Sapphire Canyon discovery.
When CNET reached out to NASA to understand just what this discovery means, Dr. Becky McCauley Rench, NASA Astrobiology Program Scientist provided valuable info. “Whether we are alone in the universe is one of the most important questions for NASA to answer,” Dr. Rench told us. “The current surface environment of Mars is not hospitable for life as we know it. However, if we do determine that Mars indeed hosted life in the deep past, it would increase the possibility that some form of life has survived to the present day in subsurface habitats.”
Life on Mars?
So, does this finally confirm that life once existed on Mars? It’s a very good start, and the most significant lead NASA has found so far. Dr. Rench was clear on this point. “This discovery significantly increases our chances of finding ancient signatures of life at Mars. It suggests the possibility of life on Mars several billion years ago. It does not provide any evidence for life on Mars today.”
The data collected by Perseverance using its onboard instruments (X-ray lithochemistry and NASA’s SHERLOC scanner) was peer-reviewed and appears promising, but it doesn’t absolutely confirm life. More tests and input are needed for that, and the samples could have been generated from a natural chemical process without the presence of life. But scientists are excited about these signs and eager to learn more.
What kind of Mars life are we talking about? It’s not the sort that comes in peace, or goes much of anywhere. The possible biosignatures indicate small, microbial life. Sapphire Canyon showed signs of vivianite and greigite. Vivianite, in particular, is found on Earth’s peat bogs and swamps, while greigite is a byproduct some earth microbes leave behind. Think of this finding like a potential algae or swamp scum.
NASA is working on analyzing the data, running more tests and sharing the results with other scientists around the world to see what more they can learn. There’s a lot to rule out, from accidental sample contamination to the likelihood of nonorganic origins. That’s tough to do from millions of miles away, but NASA is on the case.