NASA Rover Finds New Potential Evidence for Ancient Life on Mars

The "total organic carbon," a key ingredient of life, is surprisingly high in the rocks the rover was scanning when it was eight years old.

While the organic carbon may have originated from non-living sources, including meteorites and volcanoes, the discovery does lend modest new support to the theory that Mars may have been teeming with life billions of years ago.

According to the lead author of a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, total organic carbon is one of several measures that help us understand how much material is available as a source of chemistry and biology.

The carbon levels were similar to some areas of Earth.

The carbon was found to be between 200 and 273 parts per million. It is comparable to the amount found in rocks in low-life places on Earth, such as parts of the Atacama Desert in South America, and more than has been found in Mars meteorites.

The SAM instrument was used to bake 3.5 billion-year-old mudstone inside of it. The process of turning some of the carbon into CO2 gave scientists insight into the original source.

The samples were taken inside the crater.

The location would have been a great place to live if it existed.

It's a fascinating discovery that could have significant ramifications for our understanding of ancient life on the Red Planet, but that doesn't mean we should get too far ahead of ourselves.

The likelier scenario is that the carbon was the result of other processes.

The range overlaps with volcanic carbon and meteorites, which are most likely to be the source of this organic carbon.

There is an inventory of key life ingredient on Mars.

There are rover spots on Mars that are extremely weird.