this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2025
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NASA rover finds potential sign of ancient life in Martian rocks (www.reuters.com)
submitted 4 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world
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A sample obtained by NASA's Perseverance rover of reddish rock formed billions of years ago from sediment on the bottom of a lake contains potential signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, according to scientists, though the minerals spotted in the sample also can form through nonbiological processes.

The discovery by the six-wheeled rover in Jezero Crater represents one of the best pieces of evidence to date about the possibility that Earth's planetary neighbor once harbored life.

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[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I honestly think this exact headline has shown up every month for the last five years now

[–] Neomega@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

I think you might be right. And I still get excited everytime anyway.

[–] cynar@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago

I've just read through the press release. It's tentative (as all good science tends to be), but looks a lot more reliable than previous announcements.

Basically they've investigated, and can't figure out any mechanism that could create this result, without life being involved.

On earth, we would call this obvious signs of microbe activity.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago

I had a friend that was 100% convinced that we have already found extraterrestrial life, and that it was already normalized. She was actually surprised when I have to explain that we haven't found any evidence whatsoever of any living organism that had not originated on earth. She didn't even believed me at first, she just thought I was misinformed.

I blame headlines like this.