Perseverance rover has discovered potential biometric fingerprints on Mars

March – The persevering rover has reached a major milestone in its search for traces of ancient life Mars with sample collection “the most precious” So far, it contains potential biometric fingerprints that will need to be confirmed once a landAnnounced NASA This Thursday, September 15th.

This isn’t evidence yet that life did exist on the Red Planet, but it’s the best chance so far one day to be able to detect ancient microbial life with certainty.

A potential biosignature may be due to the presence of life, but also to the absence of life. To consider this biosignature definitive, these samples must be analyzed by powerful laboratory instruments on Earth. NASA plans to bring them back, thanks to another mission, by 2033.

“I think it is safe to say that these samples will be, and indeed are, the most valuable rock samples ever collected”said David Schuster, who works on these samples, at a press conference.

Two cores were taken by drilling into a rock called the “Wildcat Mountain Range”, about one meter high and located in a delta formed about 3.5 billion years ago, at the confluence of an ancient river and lake.

This rock is particularly interesting because it is a sedimentary rock that appears to have formed when the water in the lake evaporated.

These vehicles They are the basic elements of life.

Thus, the “Wildcat Mountain Range” “High potential for bio-signature preservation”said David Schuster of the University of California, Berkeley.

The rock was analyzed separately by an instrument at the end of the tenacity robotic arm, and revealed the presence of organic compounds – the most abundant compounds discovered since the mission began a year and a half ago.

These compounds – made in particular of carbon, which can also contain hydrogen – They are the basic elements of life.said Ken Farley, who is in charge of the scientific part of the expedition.

It was detected in smaller quantities by the probe during previous analyzes in the Jézéro crater, which contained the lake, but “As we move through the delta, the evidence gets stronger and stronger”summarized by Sunanda Sharma, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“Personally, I find these results very moving, because it seems that we are in the right place, with the right machinery, at a pivotal moment”She said.

“We don’t yet know the significance of these discoveries, but these rocks are exactly what we came for.”Ken Farley concluded.

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