NASA Announces “Clearest Sign” of Ancient Life on Mars

Lead NASA’s Perseverance rover has identified chemical signatures in Martian rocks that may represent the “clearest sign” yet of ancient microbial life, NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy announced on Friday, September 12, 2025.

Nut Graf During a press briefing at NASA headquarters, agency scientists revealed that analysis of a 3.5-billion-year-old rock sample nicknamed “Sapphire Canyon” uncovered mineral formations-including vivianite and greigite-commonly associated with microbial activity on Earth. This discovery, published in Nature, marks a pivotal step in assessing Mars’s past habitability.

Key Findings

  • Rock Sample Collection
    • Perseverance collected the sample from a chevron-shaped outcrop in Jezero Crater, known as “Cheyava Falls,” during July 2024 operations.
  • Mineral Evidence
    • Instruments PIXL and SHERLOC detected vivianite (iron phosphate) and greigite (iron sulfide), minerals that on Earth often form through biological processes.
  • Peer-Reviewed Confirmation
    • The Nature publication follows a yearlong external peer-review, during which no alternative abiotic explanations could fully account for the observed chemical signatures.

Scientific Context

NASA’s Mars 2020 mission aimed to seek out signs of past life by sampling sedimentary rocks in regions once flooded by water. Jezero Crater-the site of an ancient lake and river delta-has been a prime target since Perseverance landed in February 2021. Previous missions had identified dried riverbeds and clay-rich mudstones, but none yielded such compelling biosignature candidates.

Next Steps

To definitively confirm biological origins, the samples must be returned to Earth for more sophisticated laboratory analysis. NASA continues to refine its Mars Sample Return strategy, balancing scientific goals with budgetary constraints. Perseverance remains operational on Mars, with six more sample tubes available for collection.

Subheadings for Online Reading

  • What’s Next for Mars Samples? Exploration of future retrieval missions
  • Why Jezero Crater? A former lakebed rich in preserved sediments
  • How Minerals Form on Mars Geological versus biological pathways

Bullet Highlights

  • Perseverance has collected 30 samples to date, including regolith and core rock specimens.
  • Mineral detections align with environments on early Mars that were wet and potentially habitable.
  • Acting Administrator Duffy called the discovery “groundbreaking,” while science chief Nicky Fox emphasized it is “not the final answer” without Earth-based analysis.