Fascinating life signs for Mars Rover

A rock on Mars that could harbor signs of life is exciting for scientists like Katie Stack Morgan, research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and deputy project scientist for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.

This ‘really compelling sample’ found by the rover could answer the question of whether life existed on Mars, Stack Morgan told Newsweek.

The rock, nicknamed Cheyava Falls after a crevasse in the Grand Canyon, was found in July while exploring the Jezero Crater.

The rover’s instruments found organic compounds in the sample; essential ingredients necessary for the formation of life.

“This is exactly the kind of chemistry that microbes on Earth mediate and take advantage of as an energy source to fuel their own microbial metabolism,” Stack told Morgan. Newsweek.

The arrowhead-shaped rock measures 1 by 0.6 meters (3.3 feet by 2.9 feet) and is one of 25 samples taken so far by the Perseverance Rover that could be delivered to Earth by a future return mission .

“We’re particularly keen to get that sample back because it could be that there are signs of life below what we can see with the eye,” Stack Morgan said.

“You can see the structure in there that is perhaps a fingerprint that life has left behind, and that’s very exciting for us, and it’s one that we’re really keen to see and take home.

“We have what we believe is a potential biosignature, something that could have been shaped by life but needs more study. We have the building blocks of life in these rocks.

“First of all, of course, we have the organic molecules, so we have evidence that they are organic molecules. Organics, of course, does not mean that there is life, because organics can have a biological origin or a non-biological origin.

“Certainly, the presence of organic substances makes you think, because that is life as you know it, right? It consists of those organic molecules.

“That’s the first aspect that gets us excited about the rock, that’s one of the things we’re looking for.

“Next we have these leopard spots. We call them leopard spots because they are small white spots in an otherwise red rock.

‘The rock is of course red because it contains iron. When you combine the iron in the rock plus water and organics, you get these chemical reactions – on Earth they often involve microbes.

“The question is, is life involved in this reaction or not? Because this is just chemistry, you can make this happen without life being involved, but here on Earth life is involved in these types of reactions.”