NASA's Perseverance rover has collected samples of two rocks that are full of carbon-based molecule that could be remnants of ancient life.
When the crater was a lake, the rocks formed.
David L. Shuster, a professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, said during a news conference that the two most important samples that will be collected on the mission are.
Mission scientists were careful to say that they could not say if these are bits of dead Mars.
The project scientist for the Perseverance mission, Kenneth A. Farley, said that the carbon molecule could have formed in chemical reactions that were not related to life.
He said that a key point about a potential biosignature is that it has to be further investigated. We don't know if the findings are significant. The kind of rocks we came to investigate are the ones shown here.
The scientific instruments on Perseverance are not likely to give conclusive answers. The burden of proof to establish life on another planet is very high. It's not likely that most of us will be able to do that.
Scientists will be able to use state-of-the-art techniques when the samples are brought back to Earth.
The European Space Agency and NASA are working together on a Mars sample return mission. In 2033, the rocks of Mars will land on Earth.
There is a lot of interest in the possibility of life on Mars. In 1976, NASA's two Viking landers observed a world that is now cold, dry and lifeless. In the past 25 years, planetary scientists have come to believe that Mars was once warm and wet.
The Perseverance mission was designed to look into the ancient past for signs of long-dead Mars microbes, chemical signatures that are similar to those that point to the existence of life on the red planet.
Perseverance explored the floor of Jezero for a year after landing on Mars. After sprinting to the western rim of the crater, it was decided that Jezero was the landing site.
If life ever arose on early Mars, a riverdelta was an ideal geological environment to preserve traces of the organisms.
The highest scientific value for exploration of the whole mission can be found in this area. The place where we have the best chance to see the ancient rocks is here.
There are exposed layers of the rock that the rover can drive up. The scientists named two of the rocks.
The Skinner Ridge rock may have been washed into the Jezero crater from 100 miles away.
The scientist overseeing the collection of samples said that it was important because the rover wouldn't be able to visit the site.
There is a fine-grained mudstone near Skinner Ridge. The rock appears to have formed in the salty water of the lake.
Those conditions are favorable to retain signs of past life.
Scientists were pretty sure that the molecule had been formed outside of a biological process.
There are organics in the river Delta rocks.
A scientist working with an instrument on a rover that performs chemical analysis of the rock said that the signal of organic molecules grew stronger as Perseverance approached the river delta.
The signals were present at almost every point in the scans. They are some of the best that we have seen so far.
The data shows the presence of aromatics, which the instrument is more sensitive to detect. After the sample is returned to Earth, more compelling evidence of life can be found, but it will have to be analyzed.
Sulfates and organics are in the same place. Sulfate deposits on Earth are known to hold signs of life.
It is safe to say that biology would have done its job and left its mark in the rocks of places like Jezero.
He said that they were excited to be able to address the questions when they returned the samples. We have everything that we need here.
The scientists don't know what they'll find.
We are not going to bet.
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