2025-09-11 16:08:47

Rocks on Mars are the biggest indicator yet of life on the Red Planet.

The unusual mudstones were found in a dusty riverbed by NASA’s Perseverance Rover and are dotted with markings named leopard spots and poppy seeds.

Experts believe that these features contain minerals produced by chemical reactions that might be associated with ancient Martian microbes.

It is possible that the minerals have been produced by natural geological processes but NASA says that the discoveries are significant enough for what it calls “potential biosignatures” – meaning that they warrant further investigation to discover their origin.

Professor Sanjeev Gupta, a planetary scientist from Imperial College London and one of the researchers involved in the study, said: “We’ve not had something like this before, so I think that’s the big deal.

“We have found features in the rocks that if you saw them on Earth could be explained by biology – by microbial process. So we’re not saying that we found life, but we’re saying that it really gives us something to chase.”

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