NASA scientists find signs of life on Mars but getting the evidence back to Earth won’t be easy

NASA’s Perseverance rover may have taken a major step toward settling a question long on humanity’s mind of if life ever existed on Mars. The space agency has revealed a fresh set of chemical signatures that may represent the strongest evidence yet for ancient biology beyond Earth.

The intrigue centres on a rock dubbed “Cheyava Falls,” uncovered in 2024 along an ancient river channel feeding into Jezero Crater. Early analyses identified organic molecules, signs that water once flowed through it, and peculiar “leopard-spot” mineral patterns that could be favourable environments for microbial life. However, as is protocol, scientists have stayed cautious.

Now, NASA researchers have revealed two additional sampling sites — Sapphire Canyon and Masonic Temple — that seem to echo similar themes. Within rock layers there, they detected minerals such as vivianite and greigite. What makes this especially compelling is how these minerals are spatially arranged: in patterns consistent with something called redox cycling, (which are the chemical reactions involving electron transfers).

“The team was immediately struck”

Study co-author Michael Tice, a geobiologist and astrobiologist at Texas A&M University, said in a statement: “When the rover entered Bright Angel and started measuring the compositions of the local rocks, the team was immediately struck by how different they were from what we had seen before. They showed evidence of chemical cycling that organisms on Earth can take advantage of to produce energy. And when we looked even closer, we saw things that are easy to explain with early Martian life but very difficult to explain with only geological processes.”

He added that “living things do chemistry that generally occurs in nature anyway given enough time and the right circumstances. To the best of our current knowledge, some of the chemistry that shaped these rocks required either high temperatures or life, and we do not see evidence of high temperatures here. However, these findings require experiments and ultimately laboratory study of the sample here on Earth in order to completely rule out explanations without life.”

On the topic of bringing things back to Earth, this is where things get tricky and, unfortunately, political.

The European Space Agency and NASA had originally come up with the idea of using NASA’s Sample Retrieval Lander to collect the rover’s samples by 2033. However, Donald Trump looks set to severely cut NASA’s budget, something that is putting the entire mission at risk of collapse.

Related stories

NBA

Redick admits he doesn’t know if his players like him

Music

Swift is a Madridista

“Bringing this sample back to Earth would allow us to analyze it with instruments far more sensitive than anything we can send to Mars,” said Tice. “We’ll be able to look at the isotopic composition of the organic matter, the fine-scale mineralogy, and even search for microfossils if they exist. We’d also be able to perform more tests to determine the highest temperatures experienced by these rocks, and whether high temperature geochemical processes might still be the best way to explain the potential biosignatures.” We shall see.

Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all. Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.