An image of Cheyava Fallas, showing white marks that can be traces of ancient microbial activity.
“Incredibly exciting”. Intorient details were found in Martian rocks, which NASA describes as the most evident signal, so far, of life past in Mars.
Mineral nodules unusual Found on rocks on Mars had already given some clues about the old ancient life on the red planet.
In 2024, Rover Perseverance found one of these arrow -shaped rocks, nicknamed Cheyava Falls.
An initial analysis revealed that the rock was rOrganic compounds.
The material analyzed had evidence that water once flowed through it and contained spots similar to leopard resulting from chemical reactions that old microorganisms could have used to obtain energy.
It is true that these characteristics can result from non -biological processes occurring over millions of years.
However, in a study this Wednesday in the NatureNASA has announced “intriguing” details about samples of rocks found in other two nearby locations – now that these tracks reinforce the past life argument on Mars.
“We couldn’t find another explanation,” said NASA’s interim administrator, Sean Duffythis Wednesday, in.
“This can be the most evident sign of life we have ever found In Mars, which is incredibly exciting, ”he added.
As it details, last year, when the stained rock was found “leopard”, sweeping by the Sherloc instrument of perseverance it was shown that the specimen contained carbon -based molecules, along with reddish hematitis bands that had iron stains and phosphate.
“When Rover entered Bright Angel and began to measure the compositions of local rocks, the team was immediately impressed with how different they were from what we had seen before,” he said in, in, Michael Ticeco-author of the study, geobiologist and astrobiologist at Texas A&M University.
“Showed evidence of a chemical cycle that organisms on Earth can take the opportunity to produce energy. And when we looked even more closely, we saw things that are easy to explain with early Martian life but very difficult to explain only with geological processes, ”he added.
“It is not just minerals, it is how they are arranged in these structures that suggests that they formed through the ciclo redox [no qual as bactérias são atores chave na Terra] of iron and sulfur, ”said Tice.
“On earth, things like these sometimes form in sediments where microorganisms are eating organic matter and ‘breathing’ rust and sulfate. Your presence in Mars raises the question: could similar processes occur there?” Asks the researcher.
Samples now have to be brought and analyzed on land so that scientists can draw definitive conclusions about the biological or non -biological processes involved here.
