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Signs on Mars that suggest 'there might be life'

Signs that could be evidence of ancient life have been found on a rock imaged on Mars by NASA's Perseverance rover.

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It has been observed that the rock named 'Cheyava Falls', detected on Mars by NASA's Perseverance rover, contains organic compounds.

It was noted that these carbon-based molecules, which are considered the building blocks of life, could also be formed through non-biological processes.

Named 'Cheyava Falls' by scientists after a waterfall in the Grand Canyon, the arrowhead-shaped rock contains interesting features that could be clues as to whether Mars hosted microscopic life in the past. Analyses performed with instruments on the Perseverance rover showed that the rock, which is 1 meter tall and 60 centimeters wide, bears traces that fit the definition of ancient life.

It was determined that the rock indicates the presence of water flowing billions of years ago in the area discovered by the rover, and exhibits chemical traces and structures likely created by life forms. "Cheyava Falls," the 22nd rock sample examined by Perseverance, was found on July 21 while exploring the northern edge of Neretva Vallis, a 400-meter-wide ancient river valley carved by water that flowed into Jezero Crater a very long time ago.

As a result of several scans of Cheyava Falls by the "Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC)" instrument on the rover, it was seen that it contains organic compounds. It was noted that these carbon-based molecules are considered the building blocks of life, but that they could also be formed through non-biological processes.

"THE MOST ASTONISHING AND POTENTIALLY MOST IMPORTANT ROCK"

Ken Farley, a member of the Perseverance project team at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, stated, "Cheyava Falls is the most astonishing, complex, and potentially most important rock investigated by Perseverance so far. We have made the first convincing detections of organic matter, distinctive colorful spots that indicate chemical reactions that microbial life could use as an energy source, and evidence that water—necessary for life—passed through the rock. On the other hand, we have not been able to fully discover how the rock was formed and to what extent nearby rocks heated 'Cheyava Falls' and contributed to these features." 'Cheyava Falls' contains large white calcium sulfate veins running through the rock, as well as bands of material between them that suggest the presence of hematite, one of the minerals that gives Mars its characteristic rusty reddish color.

A closer look at these red regions revealed numerous irregularly shaped, millimeter-sized off-white spots surrounded by black material resembling a leopard pattern.

Perseverance's 'Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL)' determined that these black halos contain both iron and phosphate. Astrobiologist David Flannery of the Queensland University in Australia, a member of the Perseverance team, said, "These spots are a big surprise. On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with fossilized remains of microbes living underground."

MAY HAVE BEEN FORMED BY THE EFFECT OF MAGMA ON THE PLANET

On the other hand, it is among the possibilities that the millimeter-sized olivine crystals and sulfate detected in the rock may have been formed by the crystallization of magma on the planet, and that they may have adhered to the rock at uninhabitable temperatures, creating the leopard patterns through non-biological processes. Scientists are also evaluating other views on the observed traces and state that additional research is necessary for definitive evidence of ancient life.