\n<\/p>\n
Unusual features found in rocks on Mars may be the handiwork of ancient microbial life that eked out an existence on the red planet billions of years ago.<\/p>\n
The rocks were spotted by Nasa\u2019s Perseverance rover as it trundled along Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley that was carved into the landscape by water flowing into the Jezero crater in the planet\u2019s distant past.<\/p>\n
The rover, which touched down in Jezero crater in 2021, encountered the rocks last year as it explored an outcrop called the Bright Angel formation on the northern edge of the ancient valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis very well could be the clearest sign of life that we\u2019ve ever found on Mars,\u201d Sean Duffy, Nasa\u2019s acting administrator, told a press conference at the space agency\u2019s Washington DC headquarters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Instruments onboard the rover detected signs of carbon-based compounds in the rocks, while images captured intriguing surface spots and nodules that are often associated with microbial life on Earth.<\/p>\n
The unusual features may have prosaic origins in the form of chemical reactions that played out over millennia. But in a report published in Nature on Wednesday, the findings of which were discussed at the press conference, scientists say the features should be regarded as potential signs of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur analysis leads us to conclude that the Bright Angel formation contains textures, chemical and mineral characteristics, and organic signatures that warrant consideration as \u2018potential biosignatures\u2019,\u201d they write.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a signature. It\u2019s a sort of leftover sign. It\u2019s not life itself. And it certainly could have been from ancient life, and that would have been something that was there billions of years ago, nothing that\u2019s currently there,\u201d Dr Nicky Fox, associate administrator of Nasa\u2019s science mission directorate, told reporters.<\/p>\n
Still, she said: \u201cWe\u2019re kind of one step closer to answering one of humanity\u2019s most profound questions, and that is: are we truly alone in the universe?\u201d<\/p>\n
While Mars appears an arid world today, its surface is crossed and dotted with ancient river and lake beds, pointing to a warmer, wetter past. If life ever gained a foothold on the planet, traces may be found in its rocks as organic matter and possibly even fossilised organisms.<\/p>\n
Dr Joel Hurowitz, a geochemist and planetary scientist at Stony Brook University in New York, and first author on the paper, said the unusual features on the rocks were accumulations of minerals, including an iron-phosphate mineral, vivianite, and an iron sulphide mineral, greigite.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese minerals appear to have formed as a result of reactions between the mud of the Bright Angel formation and organic matter that is also present in that mud,\u201d he said. The reactions appeared to have taken place shortly after the mud was deposited on the lake bed.<\/p>\n
On Earth, reactions that combine organic matter and chemical compounds in mud to form new minerals, such as vivianite and greigite, are often driven by microbial activity. The microbes consume the organic compounds and produce the minerals as a byproduct of their metabolism.<\/p>\n
But there are other ways to produce the minerals. \u201cThe reason \u2026 we cannot claim this is more than a potential biosignature is that there are chemical processes that can cause similar reactions in the absence of biology and we cannot rule those processes out completely on the basis of rover data alone,\u201d Hurowitz said.<\/p>\n
Hurowitz added: \u201cWe should be conservative and stick to the potential biosignature designation until future research and analysis on the sample collected from this geological formation can be performed on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers hope the findings will kickstart efforts in laboratories to see if the intriguing features can be recreated through biological and non-biological processes. They also want it to spur fieldwork at sites where similar reactions may have taken place in the past. That would help scientists work out whether the features are biology at work.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, confirmation may have to wait for Mars rocks, which have been stashed aboard Perseverance, to be brought back to Earth, but Nasa plans for such a mission are badly delayed and in doubt.<\/p>\n
Scientists have decried what they see as \u201cextinction-level cuts\u201d to Nasa\u2019s science budget by the Trump administration, including the likely axing of the Mars sample return mission that would allow such analysis.<\/p>\n
Duffy, the transportation secretary installed by Trump at Nasa in July after withdrawing his initial nomination, refused to commit to bringing the rocks to Earth, and said it was the subject of \u201ca current analysis\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at how we get this sample back, or other samples back,\u201d Duffy said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to look at our timing. And, you know, how do we spend money better, and what technology do we have to get samples back more quickly?\u201d<\/p>\n
Fox appeared to press the case for more investment in Nasa\u2019s scientific research in light of Wednesday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cNasa science discoveries do not just happen at random. They are the rewarding results of meticulous, long-term strategic planning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe send these missions to really address these incredible questions, and each new discovery helps us drive what research is coming next.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an accompanying article to the report, Dr Janice Bishop, a planetary scientist at the Seti Institute in California and Dr Mario Parente, an expert in remote sensing on planets at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said: \u201cThere is no evidence of microbes on Mars today, but if any had been present on ancient Mars, they too might have reduced sulfate minerals to form sulfides in such a lake at Jezero crater.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unusual features found in rocks on Mars may be the handiwork of ancient microbial life that eked out an existence on the red planet billions of years ago. The rocks were spotted by Nasa\u2019s Perseverance rover as it trundled along Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley that was carved into the landscape by water flowing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[723,12491,337,369,12559,12558,3145,2033],"class_list":{"0":"post-20426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ancient","9":"tag-compounds","10":"tag-life","11":"tag-mars","12":"tag-microbial","13":"tag-rocks","14":"tag-sign","15":"tag-unusual"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}