NASA’s Perseverance rover has bagged its first hint of ancient microbes on Mars.
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance (partially seen in the foreground) has been exploring an ancient river delta that once flowed into Jezero Crater, where it discovered a rock that has NASA buzzing. The rock lies in the area slightly right of center in this image, about 110 meters from the rover.MSSS/ASU/JPL-Caltech/NASA
The rock has other confusing features that muddy the picture of how it formed, Stack Morgan says. It is shot through with white veins of calcium sulfate. These veins are filled with millimeter-sized crystals of olivine, a mineral that forms from magma. The inclusion of both the spots and these volcanic features in the same rock is “a little bit mysterious,” Stack Morgan says, as they point to different origins. Figuring out how the rock formed could help tell how likely it is to have had the right conditions and temperatures to host biology.
Planetary scientist Paul Byrne thinks we should be circumspect about the finding.
“Could this truly be a biosignature? Yes. And if it is, then it really is the kind of society-altering discovery that the discovery of truly extraterrestrial life would be,” says Byrne, of Washington University in St. Louis. But it’s also possible that the spots came from something other than life, “in which case all this is is an interesting example of water-rock chemistry.”
The only way to find out for sure is to bring the rock home. A big part of Perseverance’s mission is to collect samples from interesting rocks for a future spacecraft to return to Earth, where they can be studied in more sophisticated laboratories than a rover can carry on its back. Perseverance has thrown everything it has at this rock already, Stack Morgan says.
But funding uncertainty has recently put the program, known as Mars Sample Return, on hold (SN: 5/8/24).
“With this sample, the rationale for MSR is strengthened even more, and should I hope motivate NASA to commit to pulling off this project sooner rather than later,” Byrne says.
Stack Morgan says the rover team is carrying on despite the budget uncertainty.
“We have a mission to carry out, and a job to do: collecting compelling samples,” Stack Morgan says. “It can only be our hope that the samples that we collect are compelling enough to justify the cost of Mars Sample Return. I think with this exciting sample, that really hits that home.”
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Image Source : www.sciencenews.org
