The case for life on Mars just got stronger. A NASA rover has found extensive organic carbon in ancient river rocks
NASA's Perseverance rover has discovered extensive complex organic carbon in ancient river rocks within Mars' Jezero Crater. While these molecules are building blocks for life, scientists note they could also be formed through non-biological processes.
Why it matters
This discovery provides significant new data for the search for ancient life on Mars and strengthens the justification for future sample-return missions to Earth.
Scientists have confirmed one of the most extensive detections yet of complex organic carbon on Mars, found in mudstones in an ancient dried‑up river channel in Jezero Crater.
The findings, published in Science Advances , are based on hundreds of detections of macromolecular carbon (MMC) – large, tangled networks of carbon atoms – within two rocks sampled by NASA’s Perseverance rover.
The rocks are part of the Bright Angel formation in Neretva Vallis, a channel that once fed a lake inside Jezero.
It’s thought to be the only detection of macromolecular carbon on a natural rock surface on Mars.
Using the SHERLOC instrument – which employs an ultraviolet laser and fluorescence spectroscopy to probe the rocks – the team found complex carbon in both sedimentary minerals and later-forming carbonate and sulphate minerals.
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