Perseverance Robot Finds Stones With Signs Of Life On Mars

JAKARTA Perseverance, NASA's Mars rover robot, discovered an attractive rock in the Neretva Vallis area. This rock is thought to have been a place of microbial life billions of years ago. On July 21, Perseverance saw a deep rock on the northern edge of Neretva Vallis, a 400-meter-wide ancient river valley on the Martian surface. The rock dubbed Chevaya Falls was eventually collected and used as a sample of its 22nd stone core. Based on the results of Perseverance analysis, the rock has chemical signatures and structures that may have formed from microbial life in the past. Most likely, this microbial was alive when Neretva Vallis was still filled with running water. However, this theory cannot be ascertained because the features of the rock still have to be observed by scientists. For the time being, the scanning results of Perseverance's SHERLOC instrument show that Chevaya Falls contains organic compounds. Ken Farley, Perseverance Project Scientist, said that Chevaya Waterfall is important for investigation. Although the initial detection suggests a chemical reaction used as a source of microbial energy, there is a possibility that the molecule was formed through a non-biological process. "We have not been able to determine exactly how the rock formed and to what extent the nearby rocks might have heated Cheyava Falls and contributed to these features," said Farley.

Chevaya Falls measures 1 meter by 0.6 meters and is named after the Grand levy waterfall. The eroded structure that appears in the rock is white calcium sulfate and it contains reddish material. This material looks like a hematite, one of the minerals that leaves carat on Mars. There are also white patches surrounded by black material. The PIXL instrument from Perseverance found that this black circle contains iron and phosphate. There was an allegation that Chevaya Falls was initially deposited as mud with a mixture of organic compounds that eventually hardened to rock. To find out if this scenario is correct, Chevaya Falls must be brought back to Earth.