Data collected by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has revealed that rocks found in the Jezero crater are organic carbon-bearing mudstones. The discovery was described in a recent Nature publication led by Joel Hurowitz, an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University.
The research is part of ongoing work since the rover landed on Mars in 2021. Scientists have been using Perseverance to study Martian geology and collect samples for possible future return to Earth.
Upon entering the western edge of Jezero crater, Perseverance examined mudstone outcrops from what is known as the Bright Angel formation. Researchers conducted geological, petrographic, and geochemical surveys and identified traces of carbon matter along with minerals such as ferrous iron phosphate and iron sulfide.
While the team is not asserting that fossilized life has been discovered on Mars, they note that some features in these rocks could be potential biosignatures. A potential biosignature refers to any feature or substance that might have formed through biological activity but could also arise from non-biological processes. The researchers emphasize that further data will be needed before determining if microbial life played a role in creating these features.
“These mudstones provide information about Mars’ surface environmental conditions at a time hundreds of millions of years after the planet formed, and thus they can be seen as a great record of the planetary environment and habitability during that period,” said Hurowitz.
“We will need to conduct broader research into both living and non-living processes that will help us to better understand the conditions under which the collection of minerals and organic phases in the Bright Angel formation were formed,” he added.
The team concluded that additional research on these rocks is necessary. They stated: “conclude that analysis of the core sample collected from this unit using high-sensitivity instrumentation on Earth will enable the measurements required to determine the origin of the minerals, organics and textures it contains.”
