A new study co-authored by Texas A&M University geologist Dr. Michael Tice has revealed potential chemical signatures of ancient Martian microbial life in rocks examined by NASA's Perseverance rover.
The findings, published by a large international team of scientists, focus on a region of Jezero Crater known as the Bright Angel formation -- a name chosen from locations in Grand Canyon National Park because of the light-colored Martian rocks. This area in Mars' Neretva Vallis channel contains fine-grained mudstones rich in oxidized iron (rust), phosphorus, sulfur and -- most notably -- organic carbon. Although organic carbon, potentially from non-living sources like meteorites, has been found on Mars before, this combination of materials could have been a rich source of energy for early microorganisms.
"When the rover entered Bright Angel and started measuring the compositions of the local rocks, the team was immediately struck by how different they were from what we had seen before," said Tice, a geobiologist and astrobiologist in the Department of Geology and Geophysics. "They showed evidence of chemical cycling that organisms on Earth can take advantage of to produce energy. And when we looked even closer, we saw things that are easy to explain with early Martian life but very difficult to explain with only geological processes."
Occam's Razor appilies.
To read more, click here.