As he reported channel 24, NASA held a press conference on September 15 to share details about organic samples discovered on Mars. This is a great discovery that could indicate life on Mars, but not necessarily. We explain why this is so.

For the past few months, Perseverance has been investigating the remains of an ancient river delta within the Jezero Crater on Mars, where a large lake was located billions of years ago. The existence of this delta is one of the main reasons NASA sent a car-sized rover to Jezero Crater, and it appears to meet the mission’s expectations.

What was found on Mars

Perseverance has collected four samples of the deltoid formation since early July. All four have been drilled through rocks, indicating that this part of Mars may have harbored Earth-like organisms in the ancient past and may even harbor signs of such microbial life.

The rocks we studied in the delta have the highest concentration of organic matter we found during the mission. And of course, organic molecules are the building blocks of life. All of this is very interesting because we have rocks accumulating in a habitable environment in a lake that carries organic matter.
said NASA scientist Ken Farley.

One of the interesting areas Perseverance recently examined is a 1 meter wide boulder. The traveling team called it the Wildcat ridge. According to team members, the “Wild Cat” is a fine-grained mudstone that probably formed at the bottom of ancient Lake Jezero.

Wildcat Ridge rock where Azim discovered organic compounds / Photo NASA

The SHERLOC instrument (Scanning Habitable Environments Using Raman Scattering and Luminescence for Organic and Chemical Substances) found that the rock was filled with sulfur-containing minerals – sulfates as well as spatially associated organic matter.

This correlation indicates that as the lake evaporates, both sulfates and organics accumulate, are stored and concentrated in this area. On Earth, sulfate deposits are known to conserve organic matter and may contain signs of life called biosignatures.

That makes these samples and this observation set one of the most interesting things we’ve done so far on the mission, justifying the team’s excitement as we approached the delta front.
Adds Sunanda Sharma of NASA JPL.

Does this prove there is life on Mars?

Not mandatory, but possible. Scientists Farley and Sharma said at the press conference that these Martian compounds cannot be considered a biological signature.. The fact is, as NASA points out, organic matter can be created and accumulated purely as a result of geological processes, and the data collected by the rover does not yet give us enough information about the origin scenario to draw clear conclusions.

Indeed, it would be very difficult for the mission team to draw firm conclusions using the rover’s observation instruments alone. Farley confirmed this and added that the task was really difficult and The burden of proof for the alleged detection of extraterrestrial life is very high.

What will happen next?

If all goes according to plan, samples collected by Perseverance will be returned to Earth as early as 2033 in a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Once the samples are here, scientists from around the world will be able to study them with a variety of instruments that are much larger and more complex than most would fit on rover.

Perseverance carries 43 sample tubes, 15 of which are already filled, sealed and waiting to be sent to Earth. It contains twelve drilled rock cores, one atmospheric sample (the result of Perseverance’s first attempt to sample a rock that has gone awry) and two “witness tubes”—control samples, if any, to help determine what materials were found in Martian samples. Could be pollutants from Earth.

The exemplary return plan includes the use of an ESA-provided Return to Earth Orbit (ERO) and a NASA-built lander, scheduled to launch to Mars in late 2027 and early 2028, respectively. Perseverance will approach the lander and deliver samples that will then be launched from the Martian surface by rocket carried by the lander. In Mars orbit, ERO will capture samples and bring them back to Earth.