Azernews.Az

By Alimat Aliyeva

Last year, NASA's Mars rover made a remarkable discovery: a rock covered with black and white spots, Azernews reports.

Scientists are currently analyzing this find, claiming it to be some of the strongest evidence yet that life could once have existed on the Red Planet.

Last summer, the Perseverance rover explored a dried-up riverbed in northern Mars, an area where water flowed billions of years ago. There, it discovered rocks with distinctive spots, which researchers believe contain traces of ancient microscopic life.

In an article published in the journal Nature, scientists highlight that this discovery is among the most convincing pieces of evidence supporting the possibility of past life on Mars. The rock, studied by experts from Stony Brook University (New York), contains two minerals thought to have formed through chemical reactions. On Earth, such processes are often linked to microbial activity.

"This discovery, made by the Perseverance rover—the first rover launched during Donald Trump's presidency—is the closest we've ever come to confirming the existence of life on Mars," said NASA Administrator Sean Duffy.

The sample, named "Sapphire Canyon," was collected from rocks at the edge of Neretva Valley. More than 3 billion years ago, a river flowed into Jezero Crater, which once held a lake. In February 2021, Perseverance descended into the crater to search for rocks formed or altered by water.

Scientists emphasize, however, that there may be alternative explanations for the detected chemical reactions.

Perseverance continues to collect and store samples that are planned to be returned to Earth in a future mission, offering the potential for more detailed analysis.