The strange rocks of March could have indices on ancient life

NasaPerseverance Rover has discovered strange chemical and mineral models in the formation of a brilliant angel of Jezero Crater which can be the strongest clues of ancient Martian life.

The rocks contain carbon, iron, sulfur and organic phosphorus arranged strangely similar to microbial processes on earth.

Possible Martian biosignatures in Jezero Crater

A recent study partially conducted by the geologist of the Texas A&M University, Dr. Michael Tice, points to chemical clues in Martian rocks which can point out traces of ancient microbial life. The evidence comes from samples analyzed by Perseverance Rover of NASA.

An international group of researchers reported their results after examining a section of Jezero Crater called Bright Angel Formation. The name was inspired by places in the Grand Canyon National Park and refers to the pale color of the rocks in this region. The brilliant angel is in the Neretva Vallis canal and contains mudstones filled with oxidized iron (rust), phosphorus, sulfur and, above all, organic carbon. While organic carbon has been detected on March Before, often from sources like meteorites, this particular mixture of elements could have provided an energy supply for primitive organizations.

Slightly different rocks in the formation of brilliant angels

“When the Rover entered Bright Angel and started to measure the compositions of local rocks, the team was immediately struck by the difference in what we had seen before,” said Tice, geobiologist and astrobiologist in the Geology and Geophysics department. “They have shown proof of chemical cycling that organisms on earth can take advantage of energy. And when we looked even closer, we have seen things easy to explain with early Martian life but very difficult to explain with only geological processes. ”

Tice continued by explaining that “living beings make chemistry which generally occurs in nature anyway given enough time and good circumstances. To the best of our current knowledge, part of the chemistry that has shaped these rocks required high temperatures or life, and we do not see evidence of high temperatures here.

The team published its conclusions in Nature.

Ancient water -shaped sediments

The formation of Bright Angel is made up of sedimentary rocks deposited by water, including mudstones (sedimentary rocks with fine grain in silt and clay) and layers in layers which suggest a dynamic environment of rivers flowing and stagnant water. Using the continuation of instruments of perseverance, including the Sherloc and Pixl spectrometers, scientists have detected organic molecules and small mineral provisions which seem to have formed by “redox reactions”, chemical processes involving the transfer of electrons. On earth, these processes are often motivated by biological activity.

Among the most striking features are tiny nodules and “reaction fronts” – nicknamed “poppy seeds” and “leopard spots” by the Rover team – enriched with ferrous iron phosphate (probably vivianite) and iron sulfide (probably greigite). These minerals generally form in environments rich in water at low temperature and are often associated with microbial metabolisms.

“It is not only minerals, this is how they are arranged in these structures which suggest that they have formed through the redox cycling of iron and sulfur,” said Tice. “On earth, things like these sometimes form in sediments where microbes eat organic matter and” breathe “rust and sulfate. Their presence on Mars raises the question: could similar processes could have taken place there? ”

Organic carbon in the temple of Apollo

The Sherloc instrument has detected a raman spectral characteristic known as the G band, a signature of organic carbon, in several brilliant angel rocks. The strongest signals came from a site called “Apollo temple”, where vivianity and greigitis were the most abundant.

“This touring of organic matter and minerals sensitive to redox is very convincing,” said Tice. “This suggests that organic molecules may have played a role in conducting chemical reactions that have formed these minerals.”

TICE notes that it is important to understand that “organic” does not necessarily mean trained by living beings.

“It just means having a lot of carbon-carbon links,” he said. “There are other processes that can make people in addition to life. The type of organic matter detected here could have been produced by abiotic processes where it could have been produced by living beings. If it is produced by living beings, it should have been degraded by chemical reactions, radiation or heat to produce the G strip that we observe now. “

Life or geochemistry? Two competing scenarios

The study describes two possible scenarios: one in which these reactions have occurred abiotically (driven by geochemical processes) and another in which microbial life can have affected reactions, as it does on earth. Struggingly, although certain characteristics of nodules and reaction fronts can be produced by abiotic reactions between organic matter and iron, known geochemical processes that could have produced the characteristics associated with sulfur generally only operate at relatively high temperatures.

“All the ways we have to examine these rocks on the rover suggest that they have never been heated in a way that could produce leopard stains and poppy seeds,” said Tice. “If this is the case, we must seriously consider the possibility that they were made by creatures as bacteria living in mud in a Martian lake more than three billion years ago.”

Although the team emphasizes that evidence is not definitive proof of past life, the results meet the criteria of NASA for “potential biosignatures” – characteristics which justify a more in -depth investigation to determine whether they are of biological or abiotic origin.

Roche sample for the future return to earth

Perseverance has collected a basic sample of the Bright Angel training, called “Sapphire Canyon”, which is now stored in a sealed tube carried by the Rover. This sample is one of the priority people for returning to earth in a future potential mission.

“Bringing this sample back to earth would allow us to analyze it with much more sensitive instruments than anything we can send to Mars,” said Tice. “We will be able to examine the isotopic composition of organic matter, large -scale mineralogy, and even the search for microfossils if they exist. We would also be able to perform more tests to determine the highest temperatures experienced by these rocks, and if high temperature geochemical processes could always be the best way to explain potential biosignatures. ”

The earth is parallel to ancient microbial life

Tice, which has long studied ancient microbial ecosystems on earth, said that the parallels between Martian and terrestrial processes are striking – with an important difference.

“What is fascinating is how life was able to use some of the same processes on Earth and Mars about the same time,” he said. “We see evidence of microorganisms reacting in iron and sulfur with organic matter in the same way in rocks of the same age on earth, but we could never see exactly the same characteristics that we see on Mars in old rocks here. Plate tectonics treatment has heated too much to see them as another plane.

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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

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