US EditionMars Micro-Life News Comes at Pivotal Time for Southern California’s JPL
The Perseverance rover collected a rock sample with chemical compounds potentially supporting microbial metabolisms, marking the closest evidence to ancient life on Mars so far, NASA said.
- On Wednesday, NASA announced the Perseverance Mars rover collected the `Sapphire Canyon` sample from an ancient dry riverbed, with a Nature paper identifying a potential biosignature.
- After landing in Jezero crater in February, 2021, Perseverance Mars rover turned west and reached the Cheyava Falls river valley in July, 2024, where it collected the sample.
- The Nature paper reports the sample may contain a "potential biosignature" and detected vivianite and greigite, but researchers cautioned non-biological explanations cannot be ruled out.
- JPL announced late last year layoffs cutting more than 300 jobs, approximately 5% of staff, with a February layoff around 8% tied to a $300,000,000 NASA budget cut affecting the Mars Sample Return mission.
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15 Articles
NASA found clues of life on Mars, but budget cuts threaten future missions
NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. | Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images An exciting discovery on Mars is being overshadowed by turmoil at NASA, with budget cuts threatening to destroy a scientific legacy that has been built over decades. Yesterday, the agency shared a finding, published in Nature, of potential biosignatures identified by the Mars Perseverance rover in a 3.5 billion-year-old rock. "This very well could be the clearest sign…
A historical finding on Mars could change our understanding of the universe
Mars micro-life news comes at pivotal time for California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover -- built and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge -- collected a rock sample that NASA leaders say offers the best signs yet that ancient Mars harbored some form of life.
LA Daily News
Mars micro-life news comes at pivotal time for Southern California’s JPL
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover -- built and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge -- collected a rock sample that NASA leaders say offers the best signs yet that ancient Mars harbored some form of life.
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