The search continues for signs of ancient alien life on the red planet.
landed on Mars in February 2021. Having spent its first 208 Martian days investigating the planet, the rover has now provided compelling new evidence that organic molecules were once abundant in the lake on the rover's landing site, the Jezero Crater.
In an interview with IFLScience, Dr. Joseph Razzell Hollis, from the Natural History Museum in London, co-lead author on a new study presenting the findings, said, "It looks like Jezero Crater is indeed what we suspected based on orbital imaging. It used to be a lake about three/three and a half billion years ago. And that's really exciting for us, obviously, because liquid water on Mars 3 billion years ago was around the same time that life evolved on Earth.
The researchers explained that these compounds could have resulted in the evolution of life on Mars. However, they would need to analyze similar rock samples in more detail here on Earth before making any firm conclusions.That is exactly what will happen, as NASA and ESA's Mars Sample Return mission is developing the technology required to fly samples back from Mars to Earth so scientists can analyze them. The space agencies expect to do so at some point in the 2030s.
Over the last few months, the Perseverance rover has been studying an ancient river delta that is believed to have fed the lake in the Jezero Crater. It was targeted as the Perseverance rover's landing spot precisely because it was believed to have once been a massive lake. It was an ideal location to collect samples that may provide evidence of ancient microbial life.
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