Fwd: The Mars Report: Special Edition

1 view
Skip to first unread message

Ovidio Scarpa

unread,
Sep 12, 2025, 5:16:50 AMSep 12
to info-ra...@googlegroups.com




-------- Messaggio Inoltrato --------
Oggetto: The Mars Report: Special Edition
Data: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:15:25 -0400
Mittente: NASA Mars <marsprog...@jpl.nasa.gov>
Rispondi-a: marsprog...@jpl.nasa.gov
A: i1...@info-radio.eu


NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year 

View Web Version | September 2025
 
NASA Logo
Mars Report

A special edition of The Mars Report from NASA — your source from the Red Planet. 

Last summer NASA's Perseverance Mars rover investigated its “most puzzling, complex, and potentially important rock yet,” according to one mission scientist. It showed signs of past water, organic material, and clues suggesting chemical reactions by microbial life.

Now, after a rigorous, yearlong peer-review process, during which outside scientists scrutinized the Mars 2020 team’s data and analysis, the journal Nature has published the validated results: Perseverance’s "Sapphire Canyon” sample indeed contains potential biosignatures — clues that suggest past life may have been present, but that require more data or further study before any conclusions about the absence or presence of life.
 

FEATURED

NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year

In this "selfie" from the Mars Perseverance rover, composed of 62 images taken by a camera on the rover's robotic arm in July 2024, we see the rover perched on rusty red, rocky, hilly terrain, with a partly dark, partly salmon-colored sky in the background. The uneven horizon cuts across the upper quarter of the image. The rover, somewhat distorted by the camera perspective, sits in the right half of the image. In the image's lower center, just in front of the rover, is a flat, tan-colored, arrowhead-shaped rock known as "Cheyava Falls," with a dark spot where the rover extracted a core sample and a white spot next to it, created by the rover's abrasion tool.

After a year’s worth of scientific scrutiny, the ‘Sapphire Canyon’ rock sample remains the mission’s best candidate for containing signs of ancient microbial life processes.
 
A closeup view of a Martian rock, "Cheyava Falls." Running diagonally across the rectangular image, from lower left to upper right, are two white calcium sulfate bands, to the left and right, with a band of reddish material between them. Within this band are tiny, light-colored spots, each surrounded by a ring of darker material.

What's New? Peer Review

The finding was peer reviewed in a paper published on Wednesday, Sept. 10, in the journal Nature. A peer-review publication is a crucial step in the scientific process because it ensures the rigor, validity, and significance of results.

More detailed study of the sample will be required once it’s returned to Earth.

WATCH VIDEO
A still from an animation shows Mars's Neretva Vallis as it might have looked billions of years ago. Between two dusky red slopes, angling upward to the right and left (the rightward slope largely in shadow), a rippling expanse of water flows. The water is gray where it reflects the two slopes, but in between it reflects the dusky tan of the sky in the background. The channel of water narrows as it recedes toward the horizon, a short, straight gap between the two slopes; in the distance, behind the line of the water's surface at the gap in the center of the image, rises a dark crater wall.

When Mars Was Warm and Wet

This animation imagines the water-rich environment of Jezero Crater billions of years ago, compared to the ancient dry riverbed where Perseverance collected this intriguing rock sample.

 
This rectangular still from a video shows NASA scientist Lindsay Hays at right, with a dark wall embedded with round, lighted windows or ports to her left.

What is a "Potential Biosignature?"

NASA scientist Lindsay Hays explains what defines potential signs of ancient life on other worlds and why they require future study.

 
Image of martian surface showing the Perseverance Rover with tracks trailing off into the distance

Looking Back: Why Did This Rock Catch Our Eye?

Perseverance team member Morgan Cable highlights a few intriguing details that scientists noticed right away.

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES

Perseverance and its sister robot Curiosity are on a roll, thanks to the expert teams who operate these rovers every day and piece together their findings. Follow the latest updates, direct from mission team members.
Image of Perseverance

Perseverance Blog
Image of Curiosity

Curiosity Blog
 
A closeup view of a Martian rock, "Cheyava Falls." Running diagonally across the rectangular image, from lower left to upper right, are two white calcium sulfate bands, to the left and right, with a band of reddish material between them. Within this band are tiny, light-colored spots, each surrounded by a ring of darker material. One is circled in bright red, with a red line connected to a white label on a red background that says, "Leopard Spot." Above and to the right, at the edge of the rightward calcium sulfate band, a much larger, dark patch is also circled in bright red, with a red line connected to a white label on a red background that says, "Olivine."

A Journey of Discovery

America is on an unwavering journey of discovery: first to the Moon with Artemis, then onward to Mars. Meanwhile Perseverance and NASA’s other Mars missions are delivering crucial and unequaled findings, deepening our understanding of Mars and its habitability. Together these efforts will help unlock future giant leaps for humanity on the Red Planet.  
 

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Explore Mars and follow along on social media:

Facebook: @NASAMars | X: @NASAMars
 
This message was sent to i1...@info-radio.eu from marsprog...@jpl.nasa.gov

NASA Mars
NASA Mars Communications
300 Hidden Figures Way SW
Washington, DC 20024

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages