NASA's Mars Rover Makes Stunning Discovery Hinting At Ancient Martian Life

A vein-filled rock on Mars has caught the attention of the science team at NASA. The rock, nicknamed “Cheyava Falls,” was found by the Mars Perseverance rover, and has traits that lead scientists to think it may have harbored microscopic life from billions of years ago.

Since landing on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been on the prowl looking for any signs of past life on Mars. One find was the rover detecting specific fluorescence-mineral associations that are consistent with classes of organic molecules. Now, the rover has rolled up on an arrowhead-shaped rock which exhibits chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by life billions of years ago. The find comes on the heels of NASA’s Curiosity rover making a shocking discovery of its own of another rock on the Red Planet.

Early analysis by instruments aboard Perseverance shows the rock possesses qualities that may be possible indicators of ancient life, according to NASA. The space agency is not ruling out other possibilities. However, the team notes it is also exploring other possibilities, with future research steps being required to determine whether ancient life is a viable explanation.

“We have designed the route for Perseverance to ensure that it goes to areas with the potential for interesting scientific samples,” remarked Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “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 rock was part of Perseverance’s 22nd rock core sample, and was collected on July 21, 2024, while the rover was exploring the northern edge of Neretva Vallis. The rover’s Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument has since done multiple scans of the rock and determined it contains organic compounds. NASA points out that while carbon-based molecules are considered the building blocks of life, they can also originate from non-biological processes.

“Cheyava Falls is the most puzzling, complex, and potentially important rock yet investigated by Perseverance,” explained Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist of Caltech in Pasadena. “On the one hand, we have our first compelling detection of organic material, distinctive colorful spots indicative of chemical reactions that microbial life could use as an energy source, and clear evidence that water — necessary for life — once passed through the rock. On the other hand, we have been unable to determine exactly how the rock formed and to what extent nearby rocks may have heated Cheyava Falls and contributed to these features.”

Other aspects of the rock that have engrossed the team are large white calcium sulfate veins, and dozens of irregularly shaped, millimeter-size off-white splotches, each ringed with black material, akin to leopard spots. Perseverance’s Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) has determined the black halos contain both phosphate and iron, which on Earth are associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface.

At this point, the team says Perseverance has run all the tests at its disposal. Therefore, the team wants to bring the Cheyava Falls sample back to Earth for further examination with the powerful instruments only available in laboratories.