This is a huge discovery!
It is a question that scientists and musicians alike have been pondering for decades now: Is there life on Mars? Nasa think they may have an answer for us!
They believe they have found signs of life on Mars after their rover on the red planet found a spotty, vein-filled rock that contains features which suggests it may have hosted microbial life.
The arrowhead-shaped rock, named Cheyava Falls, was discovered by Nasa’s Perseverance rover on July 21 as it roamed along the northern edge of Neretva Vallis.
Neretva Vallis is an ancient river valley carved by water flowing into Mars’ Jezero crater.
Analysis of the rock, which is 3ft by 2ft rock, revealed signs of organic material, surface spots like those associated with fossilised microbes on Earth as well as evidence that water once passed through the rock.
Ken Farley, the project scientist on the mission at the California Institute of Technology said: “Cheyava Falls is the most puzzling, complex and potentially important rock yet investigated by perseverance.”
The team made it clear though that non-biological processes may have given rise to the features.
Farley continued: “On the one hand, we have our first compelling detection of organic material, distinctive colourful spots indicative of chemical reactions that microbial life could use as an energy source, and clear evidence that water, necessary for life, once passed through the rock.
“On the other hand, we have been unable to determine exactly how the rock formed and to what extent nearby rocks may have heated Cheyava Falls and contributed to these features.”
Large white veins of calcium phosphate run along the rock with bands of reddish material, likely haematite, running in between. Closer inspection of the bands show dozens of leopard-like spots.
Each off-white spot is surrounded by a black ring containing iron and phosphate.
David Flannery, an astrobiologist at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, called the spots a “big surprise” because they are so similar to features that on Earth are associated with the “fossilised record of microbes”.
Nasa’s plans to return the Mars rocks to Earth for a more thorough investigation has run into difficulties.
Nasa’s Mars sample return mission is over budget at $11bn (£8.5bn) and badly delayed with no prospect of bringing rocks back before 2040.
Professor John Bridges, a participating scientist on Nasa’s Mars Science Laboratory mission at the University of Leicester said: “The reality is we need to get these samples back on Earth to do the detailed electron microscopy and isotope analyses to check if these formed with ancient microbial action or abiotically.”
Prof Charles Cockell, an astrobiologist at the University of Edinburgh agreed with Bridges and even said scientists need to go one better and send humans up there.
He said: “We need to bring back samples, or in my view, even better, send humans, to find if we are seeing the signatures of life.”
