NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered a rock on Mars with features that may indicate ancient microbial activity on the Red Planet. The fine-grained mudstone, named Cheyava Falls, contains “poppy seeds” and “leopard spots,” which are rich in iron and suggest organic matter respiration.
The rock is located at the edge of an ancient river valley known as Neretva Vallis, which runs along the inner wall of the Jezero Crater. The features on the rock were detected by Perseverance’s instruments, including the PIXL instrument, which revealed that several rocks hosting these two features are rich in iron.
“The presence of calcium sulfate veins running through the rock suggests that water may have once flowed through it,” said Joel Hurowitz, deputy principal investigator of the PIXL instrument. “Everything seems to be consistent with low-temperature processes.”
Scientists believe that mud loaded with organic compounds was deposited into the Neretva Vallis channel, creating the Cheyava Falls rock. Alternatively, a second water episode could have seeped into the rock after it had already formed.
While there are no life-detection instruments onboard Perseverance, scientists are eager to analyze the Cheyava Falls sample to determine if ancient microbial life may have existed on Mars billions of years ago. The discovery has left them with more questions than answers and highlights the need for further laboratory, field, and modeling studies.
The Mars Sample Return effort is uncertain due to ballooned costs and a troubled process, but two new approaches are being considered by NASA, which could potentially return samples to Earth in the late 2030s.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/poppy-seeds-leopard-spots-mars-200000568.html