The search for evidence of life on Mars ramps up as NASA's Perseverance rover has already secured some promising samples containing organic matter.
has already secured some potentially revelatory samples containing organic matter. The presence of organic matter isn't slam dunk evidence of life on the Red Planet, but it is a distinctly promising sign — and, perhaps most tellingly, agency scientists seem uncharacteristically excited.
What makes the samples such a great boon is the delta they were collected from. Where a river once flowed into the lake, it also deposited tons of sediment in distinct layers, making the delta ground a terrific preservation of Mars’ historical environment. Among the rocks sampled is a small formation of stone dubbed Wildcat Ridge, thought to have been formed at the bottom of the extinct lake when it was still around. In addition to collecting two rock core samples, Perseverance chipped away at the "ridge" and scanned the exposed interior of the stone using a specialized laser instrument known as SHERLOC .
"This makes these samples and this set of observations some of the most intriguing that we've done so far in the mission and fulfills some of the excitement that the team had when we were approaching the delta front."
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