BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Brad Klein reviews upcoming astronomical highlights with Bethlehem’s "Backyard Astronomy Guy," Marty McGuire.
This week, a closer look at photos taken by the Mars rover Perseverance. According to NASA, they may have found the most persuasive evidence yet of a history of microbial life outside of Earth.
Perseverance is a robotic rover that has earned its name. It’s been moving over the surface of Mars since landing in early 2021.
But in the summer of last year, it located and analyzed a rock on the surface of the planet that scientists say suggests evidence of ancient microbial life, according to McGuire.
“These aren't little green aliens running around the planet Mars," McGuire said. "But these ‘biosignatures’ are substances or structures that they've detected through the cameras and drilling equipment on the rover that might have a biological origin."
At a news conference last month, Sean Duffy, the acting administrator of NASA, said this "could be the clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars.”
The rock appears to contain minerals that, on Earth, are formed by microbial life. The problem is this: getting Martian rock samples to a laboratory millions of miles away.
Perseverance has collected a number of rock and soil samples, but the mission that was planned to return them to Earth has been put on hold for budgetary reasons. Whether or not the Mars Sample Return mission will ever be revived remains an open question.