© Lifeburadaki Getty ImagesNASA finds evidence of past Martian Microbial
- In its ancient past, Mars likely contained many of the necessarily ingredients for microbial life to flourish on its surface.
- Now, a new discovery by NASA's Perseverance rover shows a trifecta of compelling evidence — including the presence of water, organic compounds, and a chemical energy source — all on one rock located in the Jezero Crater.
- Although this is the best clue yet that microbial life existed on Mars, there are still other explanations that could explain this geologic display without the existence of microbes.
Now, one of those rovers might've discovered one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for Martian microbial life. Located on an arrowhead-shaped, three-foot-long rock nicknamed "Cheyava Falls" in the Jezero Crater (the 28-mile-wide crater that Perseverance has called home for the past three years), this "piece of evidence" is actually a trifecta of data points that suggest the presence of past microbial life. The rock in question features two vertical veins of calcium sulfate that likely formed from past water, and these stripes both flank a red band of rock filled with "leopard spots."
NASA has discovered evidence of past water on Mars before, but it's this narrow band of rock that brings new meaning to this discovery. Using its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry) instruments, Perseverance determined the existence of organic compounds within the rock. Oh, and those "leopard spots?" Those likely indicate chemical reactions that could've supplied energy to ancient microbial Martians.
While each of these discoveries — the presence of water, organic compounds, and chemical reactions — would be notable even if discovered separately, NASA has never seen all three in one location, meaning the geological chemistry of Cheyava Falls is possibly our best clue yet that Mars once hosted
Caltech's Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist, said in a NASA press statement:
"Cheyava Falls is the most puzzling, complex, and potentially important rock yet investigated by Perseverance. We have our first compelling detection of organic material, distinctive colorful spots indicative of chemical reactions that microbial life could use as an energy source, and clear evidence that water — necessary for life — once passed through the rock."While this site is particularly exciting, it's far from the first Martian discovery to cause considerable microbial hype. Just earlier this year, scientists studying a 2017 soil analysis from Curiosity's ongoing mission in Gale Crater discovered an abundance of manganese in the soil — something that usually requires the presence of oxygen and (you guessed it) microbes.
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSAn annotated image of the Cheyava Falls rock, the two vertical veins of calcium sulfate can be seen on the left and right of the image.
Farley said in the press statement:
"We have zapped that rock with lasers and X-rays and imaged it literally day and night from just about every angle imaginable. Scientifically, Perseverance has nothing more to give. To fully understand what really happened in that Martian river valley at Jezero Crater billions of years ago, we'd want to bring the Cheyava Falls sample back to Earth, so it can be studied with the powerful instruments available in laboratories."The "six-wheeled geologist" (as NASA calls it) doesn't contain an onboard lab like its sister rover, Curiosity. But that's actually a feature — not a flaw. NASA originally designed Perseverance to also be a sample retrieval mission, meaning that the space agency would send an additional spacecraft to retrieve samples from Perseverance and bring them back to Earth for further study.
However, with the costs of such a mission edging into the $11 billion range, bringing back samples of this Martian geologic wonder is in now question — as is the possibility of definitively understanding if there was once microbial life on Mars.
(Thao, the author's mentor during his abduction, discussing explaining the arrival of the first humans – the black and asian races, from a planet in the constellation Centaur – 1.35 million years ago, when they settled in the area of Australia and Burma)
“As I said earlier, the people [blacks & Asians] knew that their planet was going to become uninhabitable within 500 years. Knowing there were other planets, inhabited and inhabitable, in the galaxy, they mounted one of the most serious exploratory expeditions.
Eventually, they penetrated your solar system, first visiting Mars which was known to be inhabitable and which, at that time in fact was inhabited.
The human beings on Mars had no technology but, by contrast, they were spiritually highly evolved. They were very small people measuring in height between 120cm to 150cm, and of Mongoloid [Asian] type. They lived in tribes in huts of stone.
The fauna of Mars was scarce. There was a kind of dwarf goat, some very large hare-like creatures, several species of rat and the largest animal resembled a buffalo but had the head like a tapir. There were also some birds and three species of snakes, one of which was quite venomous. The flora was also poor, trees attaining no more than four meters in height. They had too, an edible grass that you might compare with buckwheat.
The [explorers] conducted their research, realizing soon that Mars was also cooling down at a rate which indicated that it would no longer be inhabitable in four to five thousand years. In terms of it's flora and fauna, it was barely rich enough to sustain those already living there, let alone cope with an emigrant mass from [another world]. Besides, the planet did not appeal to them.
[These explorers did land on Earth and eventually 3.6 million of each race emigrated to Earth.]
Their original home planet eventually cooled down as predicted, and became a desert, much like Mars.