The magnificent discovery of Nasa Perseverance Rover can be the first sign of March life

Mars.

A rock sample dubbed “Sapphire Canyon,” collected from the Bright Angel formation in Jezero Crater, shows mineral and chemical patterns that resemble biosignatures—possible traces of past microbial activity. These “leopard spots,” rich in iron-based minerals, could have been formed by microbial metabolisms, though non-biological processes can’t be fully ruled out.

Possible Signs of Ancient Martian Life

A rock sample gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover in an ancient riverbed within Jezero Crater may hold evidence of past microbial life. The sample, known as “Sapphire Canyon,” was collected in 2024 from a rock called “Cheyava Falls” and is now considered one of the mission’s strongest candidates for containing potential biosignatures, according to research published today in the journal Nature.

Scientists define a potential biosignature as a material or structure that could have been formed by biological activity, but which still requires more investigation before confirming or ruling out a link to life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0yfgk8decu

This animation depicts the water which disappears over time in the Martian Neretva River Valley, where the perseverance of NASA Mars takes the Roche sample called “Sapphire Canyon” of a rock called “Cheyava Falls”, which was found in the formation “Bright Angel”. Credit: NASA / JPL-CALTECH

“This observation of perseverance, launched under President Trump during his first mandate, is the closest that we have ever discovered life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the red planet is a revolutionary discovery, and one that will make our understanding of March,” said Sean Duffy, NASA interim administrator. “NASA’s commitment to carrying out a science of golden standards will continue while we will pursue our goal of putting American boots on the rocky soil of Mars.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAKSIBWVYLU

The scientist of the NASA program, Lindsay Hays, explains what defines the potential signs of ancient life in other worlds and why they require a future study. The perseverance of NASA, Mars Rover, research these signs, collecting samples for a future return to earth and helps to open the way for human exploration. Credit: NASA / JPL-CALTECH

Explore the Bright Angel training of Jezero Crater

In July 2024, perseverance reached the Cheyava falls while studying the formation of “Bright Angel”, a series of rocky outcrops along the two sides of Neretva Vallis, a river valley of about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) wide which was carved a long time ago by the water flowing in Jezero Crater.

“This observation is the direct result of NASA’s efforts to plan strategically, develop and execute a mission capable of delivering exactly this type of science – the identification of a potential biosignature on Mars,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Directorate of the Scientific Mission at the NASA headquarters in Washington. “With the publication of this result evaluated by peers, NASA makes this data available to the wider scientific community for a more in -depth study to confirm or refute its biological potential.”

Sedimentary rocks rich in organic matter

The scientific instruments of the Rover found that the sedimentary rocks of the formation are made up of clay and silt, which, on earth, are excellent conservatives of past microbial life. They are also rich in organic carbon, sulfur, oxidized iron (rust) and phosphorus.

“The combination of chemical compounds that we found in the Bright Angel formation could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms,” said Perseverance scientist, Joel Hurowitz from Stony Brook University, New York, and the main author of the newspaper. “But it is not because we have seen all these convincing chemical signatures in the data that we had a potential biosignature. We had to analyze what this data could mean.”

Strange stains and chemical digital imprints

First to collect data on this rock, Pixl (planetary instrument for the lithochemistry of X -ray) of perseverance) and sherloc (habitable sweeping environments with raman & luminescence for organic and chemical organs). While investigating Cheyava Falls, an arrow -shaped rock measuring 3.2 feet by 2 feet (1 meter by 0.6 meters), they found what seemed to be colored spots. The spots on the rock could have been left by microbial life if it had used raw ingredients, organic carbon, sulfur and phosphorus, in rock as a source of energy.

Leopard spots: indices on mineral models

In high -resolution images, the instruments have found a distinct diagram of minerals arranged in reaction fronts (contact points where chemical and physical reactions occur), the team called leopard stains. The spots carried the signature of two minerals rich in iron: vivianitis (hydrated iron phosphate) and greigitis (iron sulfure). Vivianitis is frequently found on earth in sediments, peat bogs and around decaying organic matter. Likewise, certain forms of microbial life on earth can produce greigite.

The combination of these minerals, which seems to have been formed by electron transfer reactions between sediments and organic matter, is a potential fingerprint for microbial life, which would use these reactions to produce energy for growth. Minerals can also be abiotically generated or without the presence of life. Consequently, there are ways to produce them without biological reactions, including high temperatures, acidic conditions and a link by organic compounds. However, the rocks at Bright Angel show no evidence that they have experienced high temperatures or acid conditions, and it is not known whether the organic compounds present would have been capable of catalyzing the reaction to low temperatures.

Implications for the chronology of the habitability of March

The discovery was particularly surprising because it implies some of the youngest sedimentary rocks that the mission has studied. An anterior hypothesis assuming that signs of ancient life would be limited to older rock formations. This observation suggests that Mars could have been habitable for a longer or later period in the history of the planet than we thought before, and that older rocks could also hold signs of life which are simply more difficult to detect.

Extraordinary evidence required

“Astrobiological affirmations, in particular those linked to the potential discovery of a past extraterrestrial life, require extraordinary evidence,” said Katie Stack Morgan, scientist of the NASA Laboratory Propulsion project in South California. “Obtaining such an important conclusion as a potential biosignature on Mars in a publication evaluated by peers is a crucial step in the scientific process because it guarantees the rigor, validity and meaning of our results. And although the abiotic explanations of what we see in Bright Angel are less likely given the results of the article, we cannot exclude them. ”

The scientific community uses tools and executives such as the cold scale and the standards of evidence to assess whether the data related to the search for life really respond to the question, are we alone? These tools help improve the understanding of confidence to place in data suggesting a possible signal of life found outside our own planet.

Collection of growing rock of perseverance

Sapphire Canyon is one of the 27 rock nuclei that the rover has collected since landing at Jezero Crater in February 2021. Among the continuation of scientific instruments is a weather station which provides environmental information for future human missions, as well as samples of space combination equipment so that NASA can study how it is realized on Mars.

Reference: “Mineral and organic associations led by Redox in Jezero Crater, Mars” by Joel A. Hurowitz, MM Tice, Ac Allwood, Ml Cable, Kp Hand, Ae Murphy, K. Uckert, JF Bell III, T. Bosak, AP Broz, E. Clavé, A. Cousin, S. Davidoff, E. Dehouck Hamran, K. Hickman-Lewis, Jr Johnson, AJ Jones, MWM Jones, PS Jørgesen, Lc Kah, H. Kalucha, TV Kizovski, from Klevang, Y. Liu, FM McCubbin, El Moreland, G. Paar, Kl Siebach, S. Siljeström, Ji Simon, A. Steele, NJ Tosca, Ah Treiman, SJ Vanbommel, La Wade, BP Weiss, RC Wiens, Kh Williford, R. Barnes, PA Barr, A. Becchtold, P. Beck, K. Benzarara, S. Bernard, O. Beyssac, R. Bhartia, AJ, AJ. Brown, G. Caravaca, El Cardarelli, Ea Cloutis, Ag Farén, Dt Flannery, T. Fornaro, T. Fouchet, B. Garczynski, F. Goméz, Em Hausrath, CM Heirwegh, CDK Herd, Je Huggett, Jl Jørgesen, Swe, Ay Li, Jn Maki, L. Mandon, J. Martínez -frías, Ji Núñez, LP O’Neil, BJ Orenstein, N. Phelan, C. Quantin -Nataf, P. Russell, MD Schulte, E. Scheller, S. Sharma, DL Shuster, A. Srivaastava, Bv Wogsland and Zu Wolf, September 10, 2025, Nature.
Two: 10.1038 / S41586-025-09413-0

Managed for NASA by Caltech, NASA Jpl Built and manages the operations of Rover Perseverance on behalf of the agency’s scientific mission management as part of the NASA exploration program portfolio.

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