Sep 15 2022
Life on Mars?
NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected two rocks that could be remnants of ancient life on Mars.
The rocks were found in an ancient river in a crater. Several billion years ago the crater was a lake where life could have existed.
Kenneth A. Farley a professor of earth and planetary science, from Berkeley California, working on the mission said “I think it is safe to say that these are two of the most important samples that we’ll collect on this mission,”.
Once the rover returns to Earth with the samples in 2033 scientists will be able to to use state-of-the-art techniques to unveil what the samples are and what it means for potential life on Mars.
This is news because it is one of few pieces of evidence that have the potential to prove there is or was life on Mars at some point. Also, the sample gives hope to scientists searching for life beyond Earth. The return of the sample will be a day to look forward to.
The article does a good job explaining why this sample in particular is different from other samples that have been collected on Mars. This sample in particular has organic carbon molecules similar to what we might find in fossils on Earth. The Future is starting to look brighter for finding extraterrestrial life.
One response so far
Good comment, Tyson. I would call this human interest. The fact that we are collecting mars soil samples says something about human ingenuity.