NASA found clues of life on Mars, but budget cuts threaten future missions

""This very well could be the clearest sign of life that we've ever found on Mars," said Transportation Secretary and Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy in a press conference. Scientists involved in the research were careful to emphasize that the findings - related to unusual textural features of rocks sampled in the Neretva Vallis region in Mars' Jezero crater - are a possible, but certainly not definitive, indicator that microbial life could have existed on Mars billions of years ago."

"The features observed in the rock on Mars, nicknamed "poppy seeds" and "leopard spots" due to their appearance as black dots and ring shapes with dark rims, are typically seen on Earth as the result of microbial life. But there could be other, non-biological explanations for how these features were formed. "This is the kind of signature that we would see, that was made by something biological," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate."

Perseverance rover samples from the Neretva Vallis area of Jezero crater contain unusual textural features in a 3.5 billion-year-old rock that resemble terrestrial microbial signatures. The features, described as black dots and ring shapes with dark rims and nicknamed "poppy seeds" and "leopard spots," often result from biological activity on Earth but may also form through abiotic processes. Scientists emphasize that the observations are possible but not definitive indicators of ancient microbial life, and the samples are undergoing peer review. The announcement occurs amid internal turmoil and proposed steep NASA budget cuts that could jeopardize decades of scientific progress.

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