Perseverance Finds Stone with Signs of Ancient Life – DW – 26.07.2024

In a discovery that has the scientific community excited, NASA’s Perseverance rover has found an intriguing rock on Mars that may hold clues to the possible existence of ancient life on the Red Planet. The rock, dubbed “Čejava Waterfall,” found on the edge of the ancient Neretva River valley, has attracted attention for its unique features that may have been crucial to supporting microbial life billions of years ago.

This mysterious, arrowhead-shaped piece of Mars has revealed signs of carbon-rich organic compounds, elements thought to be precursors to life as we know it, thanks to analysis by the rover’s SHERLOC instrument. For example, the discovery of white veins of calcium sulfate and hematite deposits, which give Mars its characteristic reddish color, suggest that water once flowed through the site.

In addition, the rock has millimetre-sized spots surrounded by black rings containing iron and phosphate, similar to leopard spots, characteristics that on Earth are usually associated with microbial activity.

“These spots are a big surprise,” says astrobiologist David Flannery. from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. “On Earth, such features in rocks are usually associated with fossils of microbes living underground,” he added.

Other explanations for the Martian “Cheyava Falls”

However, the Perseverance science team is considering other explanations for the features observed. The presence of olivine crystals in the rock and the geological setting suggest that non-biological processes, such as magma crystallization or alteration by high-temperature water, could explain the formation of the features.

So despite these promising results, there is still a long way to go to confirm the presence of past life on Mars, so scientists remain cautious.

“On the one hand, we have the first convincing detection of organic material, distinctive color spots indicating chemical reactions that microbial life could use as an energy source, and clear evidence that water once moved through the rocks. On the other hand, we couldn’t determine exactly how the rocks formed,” explained Ken Farley, a research scientist at the California Institute of Technology.

At this point, researchers have exhausted Perseverance’s ability to analyze the rock. So to fully unravel the mystery of Cheyawa Falls, it will be necessary to return a sample to Earth for more detailed study. However, the Mars sample return project faces significant challenges, including high costs, projected at $11 billion, and logistical complications.

“We’ve bombarded this rock with lasers and X-rays and literally photographed it day and night from every angle imaginable,” Farley added. “From a scientific standpoint, Perseverance has given us all it can. To fully understand what really happened in the Jezero Crater river valley on Mars billions of years ago, we’d like to bring a sample of Cheyawa Falls back to Earth so we can study it with the powerful tools available in labs,” he added.

In the meantime, the discovery of Cheyava Falls will be a major milestone in our exploration of Mars. And while it is not definitive proof of ancient life, it does offer tantalizing clues that could spur future research and perhaps one day solve one of the greatest mysteries of our solar system: Was there ever life on Mars?

Edited by Felipe Espinosa Wang using information from NASA, Space.com, and Science Alert.