NASA, the American Space Agency, announced a historic discovery regarding Mars’ past at a press conference last night. The agency has been analyzing samples collected by the Perseverance rover on the Red Planet for a year, and as a result, they have found strong evidence of past life on Mars.

NASA believes there was life on Mars

Perseverance collected the sample in question in July 2024 from an arrowhead-shaped boulder in the Neretva Vallis region on the rim of Jezero Crater. Scientists have named this sample “Sapphire Canyon.” The Neretva Vallis region is thought to have been an area where powerful streams flowed approximately 3.5 billion years ago, and these findings provide new evidence that the region was once a wetland.

Examination of the sample revealed black spots, known as “leopard spots” and “poppy seeds,” in particular. The rover’s PIXL instrument detected concentrations of iron and phosphate in these spots.

These two elements are known to be energy sources in some microbial processes on Earth. Iron phosphate, which forms particularly in the presence of low temperatures and water, suggests that similar biochemical conditions may have existed on Mars.

Another significant finding on the rock are white vein structures composed of calcium sulfate. These indicate that water flowed through rock cracks. Measurements taken by the SHERLOC probe also revealed organic compounds, which are carbon-based molecules. Researchers suggest that these organic substances, along with the “rusty red mud,” may have accumulated and shaped the rock.

The rock also contained signs of hematite, one of the minerals responsible for Mars’s reddish color. Researchers believe that the black rings were formed by iron and phosphate released during the whitening of reddish rocks. This process is similar to metabolic reactions on Earth, where microorganisms generate energy by consuming organic matter.

For a while, scientists were unsure whether these structures were formed solely by geochemical processes or by microbial life. However, Perseverance’s data show that the rocks were never exposed to the high temperatures necessary for geochemical processes. All available data points to a microbial origin for the findings.

NASA’s interim administrator, Sean Duff, said, “After all the investigations, we haven’t found any other explanation.” Joel Hurowitz, one of the researchers who led the study, supported this explanation, saying, “The combinations of minerals and textures we see are very similar to the traces left behind on Earth, mostly by microbes consuming organic matter.”