NASA unexpectedly discovers suspicious traces revealing life on Mars
Vietnam.vn EN
12/09/2025 12:36:00
Unusual shapes on the surface of Martian rocks have led scientists to believe that this could be the most convincing evidence yet of extraterrestrial life.
Strange mineral nodules on rocks speckled on the surface of Mars sent back to Earth by the Perseverance rover may provide further evidence that ancient life may have once thrived on the red planet, according to NASA. Photo: NASA.
NASA’s Perseverance rover found an arrowhead-shaped rock called Cheyava Falls in 2024 along the north shore of Neretva Vallis, the dry remnants of an ancient river that once flowed into Mars’ Jezero Crater. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
Initial analysis of the rock found in the Bright Angel Lake bottom formation indicates it is filled with organic compounds, has evidence of water flowing through it, and has leopard-like spots from chemical reactions that ancient microorganisms may have used to create energy. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
These features may be the result of non-biological processes that took place over millions of years. In a study published on September 10 in the journal Nature, NASA
scientists reported interesting details about rock samples found at two nearby sites, which they said could support the hypothesis of past life on Mars. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy said this could be the clearest sign of life scientists have ever found on Mars. Photo: space.
Since arriving on Mars in 2021, the Perseverance rover has been traversing the 50-kilometer-wide Jezero Crater, collecting dozens of rock samples to send back to Earth. When it found the leopard-spotted rock, scans from the robot's SHERLOC instrument showed that the sample contained carbon-based molecules along with bands of red hematite with iron and phosphate spots. Photo: space.
Additional
discoveries recently announced by NASA involve clay-rich rock samples found at Sapphire Canyon and the Masonic Temple, which contain vivianite, an iron-phosphate mineral, and greigite, an iron-sulfide mineral. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
According to scientists, these minerals may have formed from a reaction between mud and organic matter. The distribution of minerals on the rocks seems to support this hypothesis. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Study co-author Michael Tice, a geobiologist and astrobiologist at Texas A&M University, said the arrangement of minerals in the rock structure suggests they were formed through the redox cycle of iron and sulfur. On Earth, similar products sometimes form in sediments, where bacteria eat organic matter and “exhale” rust and sulfate. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
However, researchers need to analyze more carefully the samples collected by the Perseverance rover and sent back to Earth to draw a clear conclusion about whether the patterns on the rock surface were created by biological or non-biological processes. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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