Perseverance uses its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called Skinner Ridge. Perseverance uses its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called Skinner Ridge. Photo Credit: NASA
EnvironmentLife on Mars? Perhaps so, 3.5 Billion Years Ago!
NASA’s Perseverance rover was sent to Mars to look for signs of past microbial life – and it might have just found it.
“While the detection of this class of organics alone does not mean that life was definitively there, this set of observations does start to look like some things that we’ve seen here on Earth. To put it simply, if this is a treasure hunt for potential signs of life on another planet, organic matter is a clue. And we’re getting stronger and stronger clues as we’re moving through our delta campaign,” explained Sunanda Sharma, SHERLOC scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
The recently collected organic matter sample indicates that Mars’s Jezero Crater was potentially a habitable environment at about 3.5. billion years ago. The Perseverance rover is able to analyze the rocks for chemicals, minerals, and organic matter and help scientists back on earth discover more about Mars in real time. Eventually, in 2030, NASA plans to run a series of missions that will bring the collected rocks back to earth for further analysis.
