General News
19 September, 2025
A sign of life on Mars?
Scientists have discovered the potential of ancient life on Mars in a long-dried riverbed.
Far from the Central Goldfields, in a solar system we share, a sample collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover contains potential biosignatures of long-ago microbial life.
This means the sample contained a substance or structure that may have a biological origin — but more data or further study is needed before it can be said for certain.
Perseverance had been roaming Mars since 2022 before the discovery, collected last year, which came from a reddish rock with leopard spots.
Scientists think the spots may indicate microscopic life, billions of years ago, fueled their metabolisms through chemical reactions within the rock.
“The combination of chemical compounds we found ... could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms,” lead researcher Joel Hurowitz of Stony Brook University said.
The formation’s sedimentary rocks are also composed of clay and silt which, on Earth, NASA explained are excellent preservers of past microbial life.
Although other explanations are being considered, including sustained high temperatures or acidic conditions, the rock does not show evidence of either.
Ultimately, however, determining the origins will require further testing on Earth.
Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said the peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Nature was a crucial step in the scientific process.
“Astrobiological claims, particularly those related to the potential discovery of past extraterrestrial life, require extraordinary evidence,” she said.
“While abiotic explanations for what we see ... are less likely given the paper’s findings, we cannot rule them out.”