Evidence of life on Mars? NASA's Perseverance Rover makes historic discovery

 

 

California: The American space agency NASA has taken a historic step in the long-standing human quest to find life beyond Earth. NASA announced that the Perseverance Mars Rover has found potential biosignatures in a rock on the surface of Mars, known as the Red Planet. The rover, which scientists have named Cheyava Falls, was discovered by the rover in 2024. The rover analyzed it using sensors and instruments. The sample, called 'Sapphire Canyon' in the rock, contains biosignatures that could be indicative of life, according to a paper published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. It was found to contain clay, silt, organic carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, and oxidized iron, or rust.

Life on Mars still needs to be confirmed

NASA researchers believe that these minerals were formed through electron-transfer reactions, similar to how microorganisms do to obtain energy. Scientists have clarified that this structure can also be formed through non-biological processes. The discovery is the closest we have come to finding life on Mars and will take our studies to a new level, NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said at a press conference. The Perseverance rover has so far collected more than 30 samples from Mars. The plan is to bring them back to Earth and test them in advanced laboratories. Only then can evidence of life on Mars be confirmed. The current discovery on Mars is considered a historic step in the search for the origins of human existence and the possibilities of life in the universe.