Aliens on Mars have not yet been found — but signs that the Red Planet hosted life billions of years ago have, NASA said Thursday.
The space agency’s Perseverance rover found a spot-covered rock Sunday that may hold clues as to whether Mars is — or was — a hospitable planet.
Lovingly nicknamed Cheyava Falls after a Grand Canyon waterfall, the “vein-filled” arrowhead-shaped rock apparently contains organic compounds, implying it may have hosted microbial life when water flowed across Mars.
The specimen was found on the northern edge of Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley measuring a quarter-mile wide that was carved by water rushing into Jezero Crater long ago.
“We have designed the route for Perseverance to ensure that it goes to areas with the potential for interesting scientific samples,” Nicola Fox, an associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement.
“This trip through the Neretva Vallis riverbed paid off as we found something we’ve never seen before, which will give our scientists so much to study.”
The NASA rover — on the hunt for signs of ancient microbial life — conducted multiple surveys of Cheyava Falls, which scientists described as the “most puzzling, complex, and potentially important rock yet investigated by Perseverance.”
Measuring 3.2 feet by 2 feet, Cheyava Falls stands apart from other red-colored rocks on Mars because of its dozens of leopard-like white and black splotches.
The Black halos contain both iron and phosphate, the same features found on rocks on Earth that have fossilized microbes on their surface, NASA said.
It is too soon to tell whether the large rock contains the answer to humans’ long-burning questions, however.
The white and black rings may have simply been caused by a chemical reaction that had nothing to do with living organisms, scientists theorized.
NASA hopes to bring Cheyava Falls to Earth for further research in the coming years, but in the meantime is warning Earthlings not to get too excited about life on Mars.
“Other explanations for the observed features are being considered by the science team, and future research steps will be required to determine whether ancient life is a valid explanation,” NASA said.
