NASA’s Perseverance rover has identified its most compelling evidence yet for ancient microbial life on Mars.
A rock sample dubbed “Sapphire Canyon,” collected from the Bright Angel formation in Jezero Crater, shows mineral and chemical patterns that resemble biosignatures—possible traces of past microbial activity. These “leopard spots,” rich in iron-based minerals, could have been formed by microbial metabolisms, though non-biological processes can’t be fully ruled out.
Possible Signs of Ancient Martian Life
A rock sample gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover in an ancient riverbed within Jezero Crater may hold evidence of past microbial life. The sample, known as “Sapphire Canyon,” was collected in 2024 from a rock called “Cheyava Falls” and is now considered one of the mission’s strongest candidates for containing potential biosignatures, according to research published today in the journal Nature.
Scientists define a potential biosignature as a material or structure that could have been formed by biological activity, but which still requires more investigation before confirming or ruling out a link to life.
This animation depicts water disappearing over time within the Martian river valley Neretva Vallis, the place NASA’s Perseverance Mars takes the rock pattern named “Sapphire Canyon” from a rock referred to as “Cheyava Falls,” which was discovered within the “Bright Angel” formation. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“This finding by Perseverance, launched under President Trump in his first term, is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars,” stated performing NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “NASA’s commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue as we pursue our goal of putting American boots on Mars’ rocky soil.”
NASA program scientist Lindsay Hays explains what defines potential indicators of historical life on different worlds and why they require future research. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is trying to find these indicators, amassing samples for future return to Earth, and serving to pave the way in which for human exploration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Exploring Jezero Crater’s Bright Angel Formation
In July 2024, Perseverance reached Cheyava Falls whereas finding out the “Bright Angel” formation, a collection of rocky outcrops alongside each side of Neretva Vallis, a river valley a couple of quarter-mile (400 meters) huge that was carved way back by water flowing into Jezero Crater.
“This finding is the direct result of NASA’s effort to strategically plan, develop, and execute a mission able to deliver exactly this type of science — the identification of a potential biosignature on Mars,” stated Nicky Fox, affiliate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With the publication of this peer-reviewed result, NASA makes this data available to the wider science community for further study to confirm or refute its biological potential.”
Sedimentary Rocks Rich in Organic Material
The rover’s science devices discovered that the formation’s sedimentary rocks are composed of clay and silt, which, on Earth, are wonderful preservers of previous microbial life. They are additionally wealthy in natural carbon, sulfur, oxidized iron (rust), and phosphorus.
“The combination of chemical compounds we found in the Bright Angel formation could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms,” stated Perseverance scientist Joel Hurowitz of Stony Brook University, New York, and lead writer of the paper. “But just because we saw all these compelling chemical signatures in the data didn’t mean we had a potential biosignature. We needed to analyze what that data could mean.”
Strange Spots and Chemical Fingerprints
First to gather knowledge on this rock had been Perseverance’s PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) and SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) devices. While investigating Cheyava Falls, an arrowhead-shaped rock measuring 3.2 toes by 2 toes (1 meter by 0.6 meters), they discovered what gave the impression to be colourful spots. The spots on the rock might have been left behind by microbial life if it had used the uncooked elements, the natural carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus, within the rock as an vitality supply.
Leopard Spots: Clues in Mineral Patterns
In higher-resolution photos, the devices discovered a definite sample of minerals organized into response fronts (factors of contact the place chemical and bodily reactions happen) the group referred to as leopard spots. The spots carried the signature of two iron-rich minerals: vivianite (hydrated iron phosphate) and greigite (iron sulfide). Vivianite is incessantly discovered on Earth in sediments, peat bogs, and round decaying natural matter. Similarly, sure kinds of microbial life on Earth can produce greigite.
The mixture of these minerals, which seem to have shaped by electron-transfer reactions between the sediment and natural matter, is a possible fingerprint for microbial life, which might use these reactions to supply vitality for progress. The minerals additionally will be generated abiotically, or with out the presence of life. Hence, there are methods to supply them with out organic reactions, together with sustained excessive temperatures, acidic situations, and binding by natural compounds. However, the rocks at Bright Angel don’t present proof that they skilled excessive temperatures or acidic situations, and it’s unknown whether or not the natural compounds current would’ve been succesful of catalyzing the response at low temperatures.
Implications for Mars’ Habitability Timeline
The discovery was significantly stunning as a result of it includes some of the youngest sedimentary rocks the mission has investigated. An earlier speculation assumed indicators of historical life could be confined to older rock formations. This discovering means that Mars might have been liveable for an extended interval or later within the planet’s historical past than beforehand thought, and that older rocks additionally may maintain indicators of life which are merely more durable to detect.
Extraordinary Evidence Needed
“Astrobiological claims, particularly those related to the potential discovery of past extraterrestrial life, require extraordinary evidence,” stated Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s undertaking scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Getting such a significant finding as a potential biosignature on Mars into a peer-reviewed publication is a crucial step in the scientific process because it ensures the rigor, validity, and significance of our results. And while abiotic explanations for what we see at Bright Angel are less likely given the paper’s findings, we cannot rule them out.”
The scientific group makes use of instruments and frameworks just like the CoLD scale and Standards of Evidence to evaluate whether or not knowledge associated to the seek for life really solutions the query, Are we alone? Such instruments assist enhance understanding of how a lot confidence to put in knowledge suggesting a doable sign of life discovered exterior our personal planet.
Perseverance’s Growing Rock Collection
Sapphire Canyon is one of 27 rock cores the rover has collected since touchdown at Jezero Crater in February 2021. Among the suite of science devices is a climate station that gives environmental info for future human missions, in addition to swatches of spacesuit material in order that NASA can research the way it fares on Mars.
Reference: “Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars” by Joel A. Hurowitz, M. M. Tice, A. C. Allwood, M. L. Cable, Ok. P. Hand, A. E. Murphy, Ok. Uckert, J. F. Bell III, T. Bosak, A. P. Broz, E. Clavé, A. Cousin, S. Davidoff, E. Dehouck, Ok. A. Farley, S. Gupta, S.-E. Hamran, Ok. Hickman-Lewis, J. R. Johnson, A. J. Jones, M. W. M. Jones, P. S. Jørgensen, L. C. Kah, H. Kalucha, T. V. Kizovski, D. A. Klevang, Y. Liu, F. M. McCubbin, E. L. Moreland, G. Paar, D. A. Paige, A. C. Pascuzzo, M. S. Rice, M. E. Schmidt, Ok. L. Siebach, S. Siljeström, J. I. Simon, Ok. M. Stack, A. Steele, N. J. Tosca, A. H. Treiman, S. J. VanBommel, L. A. Wade, B. P. Weiss, R. C. Wiens, Ok. H. Williford, R. Barnes, P. A. Barr, A. Bechtold, P. Beck, Ok. Benzerara, S. Bernard, O. Beyssac, R. Bhartia, A. J. Brown, G. Caravaca, E. L. Cardarelli, E. A. Cloutis, A. G. Fairén, D. T. Flannery, T. Fornaro, T. Fouchet, B. Garczynski, F. Goméz, E. M. Hausrath, C. M. Heirwegh, C. D. Ok. Herd, J. E. Huggett, J. L. Jørgensen, S. W. Lee, A. Y. Li, J. N. Maki, L. Mandon, N. Mangold, J. A. Manrique, J. Martínez-Frías, J. I. Núñez, L. P. O’Neil, B. J. Orenstein, N. Phelan, C. Quantin-Nataf, P. Russell, M. D. Schulte, E. Scheller, S. Sharma, D. L. Shuster, A. Srivastava, B. V. Wogsland and Z. U. Wolf, 10 September 2025, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09413-0
Perseverance is NASA’s most superior Mars rover, designed to seek for indicators of previous microbial life and acquire rock samples for doable return to Earth. Built and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the rover is managed for NASA by Caltech on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. It is a key mission within NASA’s broader Mars Exploration Program, which is focused on understanding the Red Planet’s geology, climate, and potential for life. Perseverance also carries technology demonstrations to prepare for future human exploration.
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