News Planetary Science

NASA’s Perseverance rover finds its first possible hint of ancient life on Mars

The discovery builds the case for bringing pieces of Mars back to Earth for future study

An image of a rock on Mars taken by the NASA rover Perseverance. Rocky white stripes flank a clay-colored area that is speckled with dark spots.

Perseverance examined this Mars rock on July 21. The leopard spot–like features speckling the clay-colored part of the rock resemble structures in Earth rocks that are associated with life.

MSSS/JPL-Caltech/NASA

By Lisa Grossman

NASA’s Perseverance rover has bagged its first hint of ancient microbes on Mars.

“We’re not able to say that this is a sign of life,” says Perseverance deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif.