On the 10th of September 2025, NASA anounced that the Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in 2021 inside the Jezero Crater, may have found traces of ancient life on Mars. This mission has been gathering mineral samples from craters that are believed to have once been river deltas and lakes. These are prime locations for searching for signs of past life, as such environments could have supported microbial activity in the shallows.
The great discovery consists of tiny markings on rocks in the ancient lake bed, nicknamed “leopard spots” and “poppy seeds”. These millimeter-sized speckles are surrounded by calcium sulfate, a mineral that typically forms in the presence of water. What’s particularly exciting is that on Earth, similar mineral and chemical compositions are usually formed either by microbes or through high-temperature chemical reactions, but since Mars isn’t especially hot, the microbial explanation becomes more compelling.
Moreover, these hypothetical microorganisms would date back to around three and a half billion years ago, about the same time that life developed on Earth as well. This suggests that some of the same chemistry essential for life on early Earth likely occurred on Mars as well during similar timescales. Stronger evidence will have to wait for the return of Perseverance’s samples back to Earth, to be analyzed in detail with advanced lab equipment. Interestingly, amino acids were recently found in samples from the asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, raising the possibility that the prebiotic precursors to life may be widespread across the solar system.
The finding of possible traces of life on Mars arrives at a time when mistrust in science is spreading globally, and impacting public research and outreach, which in turn only feeds scepticism even more. NASA’s science funding is planned to be cut by 50% next year. Adjusted to inflation, this would make NASA’s 2026 budget the lowest since the start of the Space Race in the 1960s, back to when spacecrafts, space telescopes, or Earth science missions did not exist. If the proposal is not rejected, it will decimate NASA’s workforce and scientific output, prematurely closing many ongoing missions like Perseverance, and ceasing STEM education and outreach altogether. NASA’s news is a call for attention and support, and a reminder that if we hinder the work of scientists, we will not understand our place in the Universe and the origin of life within our lifetime.
MSc in Astrophysics and Particle Physics.
PhD candidate working in the field of Galaxy Evolution and Large Scale Structure.