NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover has found potential signatures for organic molecules on the planet, which could be evidence for the presence of key building blocks of life there. The signatures found in Mars’s Jezero crater point to a class of carbon-based molecules that could have been left behind by ancient microbial life.
“This is also one of the first reports of potential organics in Jezero crater. The SHERLOC instrument on the Perseverance rover’s robotic arm allows for the spatial resolution needed to observe important mineral-organic relationships to evaluate potential biosignatures,” said Ashley Murphy, co-author of a research article on the discovery published in the journal Nature.
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A close up image of a rock named “Dourbes” on Mars, taken by Perseverance. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
The SHERLOC instrument is mounted on the robotic arm of Perseverance and it uses cameras, spectrometers and a laser to search for organics and minerals that have been altered by watery environments. This could point to the existence of past microbial life.
The research article documents the detection of spectra consistent with multiple varieties of aromatic organic molecules in Máaz and Séítah formations within the Jezero Crater.
According to Murphy, this finding indicates that the red planet once had relatively complex organic geochemistry. On Earth, such mineralogy is associated with the habitable environments that are capable of preserving signs of ancient life. But she warns that not all organics are biological in origin.
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Observing spatial relationships between minerals and organics is necessary when evaluating organic origins and potential biosignatures. Everything we know of life on Earth is limited to what is preserved in the rock-mineral record. On Earth, biosignatures are found in certain minerals and some minerals are better at preserving organics than others,” she added.
An image of the Jezero Crater on Mars taken by Perseverance on February 3, 2023. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) 
A close up image of a rock named “Dourbes” on Mars, taken by Perseverance. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
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