For many decades, we have been trying to understand if on the “twin” planet of the earth, Marstraces of past life can be found. Well, perhaps from this point of view we are at a turning point: the rover Perseverance Della NASA has discovered unusual and particular minerals associated with organic carbon which could be compatible with biological processes and which are therefore considered as’potential biofermes worthy of further investigations to ascertain whether derive from past life forms “.
The announcement of NASA
To give the announcement is the Nasa who talks about it in the international scientific journal Nature: Further details will be provided on the afternoon of Wednesday 10 September during a press conference in the presence of Sean Duffyinterim administrator. International research on traces of life on Mars also includes theNational Institute of Astrophysics. “Perseverances, the NASA rover, discovered rocks in a dry river channel that could contain potential signs of ancient microscopic life “the scientists explained during the press conference.
However, new studies will be necessary, further studies and an in -depth analysis of the sample collected by Perseveranc before you can reach any conclusion. On mission to Mars since 2021, the Rover is not able to directly detect traces of life but transports a drill to penetrate the rocks and pipes to contain the samples collected by the places deemed most suitable for hosting life billions years ago.
“Exciting discovery”
This study is the result of a sampling of clayey rocks that Perseverances conducted led last year within the Jezero crater and inside the formation that is called “Bright Angel“(a rocky outcrop located at the base of the northern side of the ancient river valley”Neretva Vallis“, who converge in the crater Jezero). The analyzes on the sample called ‘Sapphire Canyon‘They highlighted the presence of tiny nodules and granules enriched with iron phosphate and iron sulphide, associated with organic carbon.
It is an “exciting discovery”: two scientists not involved in the study – Janice Bishop of the Seti Institute and Mario Parente of the University of Massachusetts Amherst have affirmed him – who havetened to underline that they could be responsible non -biological life processes. “This is one of the reasons why we cannot say ‘Ah, this is the positive proof of the existence of life“, he told theAssociated Press Chapter researcher Joel Hurowitz of the Stony Brook University. “All we can say is that one of the possible explanations is microbial life, but there may be other ways to create this set of characteristics that we observe“.
What are the objectives
According to the researchers, their presence in such a sedimentary context supports their classification as “potential biofrar”, which will be further investigated to exclude purely geochemical origins. In addition to providing important meteorological information on the conditions of the “red planet”, the Rover Perseverance of the NASA and understand if in the future it can also be habitable by man, it deals with saming various material so as to study its composition.
Among the key objectives there is theastrobiologythat is, the search for traces of microbial life: the rover is
To the in -depth search for the planet’s geology so as to open to a future human exploration of the planet and is also the first mission that collects and preserves rocks and wrecks (rock and shattered powder) Martian.