Potential Biosignature Detected on Mars, Sparking New โHope for Evidence of Ancient Life
JEZERO CRATER, MARS – NASA’s Perseverance rover has โdetectedโข aโ potential biosignature within sedimentary rocks billions of years old in the Jezero Crater, a โฃregion scientists believe once held a lake, according to a study published in the journal Nature. โฃThe revelation centers around the โฃpresence of two minerals – vivianite, an iron phosphate, and greigite, anโ iron โคsulfide – which appear to have formed through chemical โคreactions involving organic materials in ancient mudโ deposits.
Theโฃ finding doesn’t confirm past lifeโ on Mars,but represents aโ notable step inโ the search. Scientists โbelieveโ similarโ reactions on earth are frequently enough driven by microbial โactivity, where microbes consume organic matter โฃand produce these minerals as a byproduct. The Jezero Crater is considered โa prime location to search for evidence โคof ancientโค Martian life, as rivers are thought โคto have โขflowed into the crater โฃover 3.5 billion years ago, creating a โperhapsโ habitable โขlake โhabitat.
Joel Hurowitz,โ a planetologist at Stony Brookโค University who led the research, explained the significance: “These reactions seem to have occurredโฃ shortly after the โdeposit of the mud at theโข bottom โofโ the lake. Onโ earth, reactions of this type, which combine organic matter andโฃ chemical compounds present in mud to form new minerals such as vivianitis and greigitis, are often caused by โmicrobes activity.”
Though, Hurowitz cautionedโ against definitive conclusions. “However, we cannot sayโค that it is more than a potential biosignature, because certain chemical processes can cause similar reactions in the absence of biology, and we cannot completely exclude these processes on the basisโ of robot data alone,” he stated.
The rover is currently collecting โsamples from the “Radiant angel” formation, and scientists hope that analyzing these samples – if they โare eventually returned toโข Earth -โ willโ provide verifiableโ hypotheses to determine whether biological processes were responsible for the mineral formations. โฃ Hurowitz added, “subsequent research will provide us wiht a series ofโ verifiable hypotheses making it possible to determine whether biology is responsible for the formationโ of these characteristics inโฃ the Bright Angelโ training, which we can assess by examining the sample of the Canyon sapphire if it is brought back to earth.”
