"NASA's science mission chief, Nicky Fox, acknowledged that the latest analysis "is certainly not the final answer," but said it's "the closest we've actually come to discovering ancient life on Mars.""
""These reactions appear to have taken place shortly after the mud was deposited on the lake bottom. On Earth, reactions like these, which combine organic matter and chemical compounds in mud to form new minerals like vivianite and greigite, are often driven by the activity of microbes,""
"The minerals are vivianite, an iron phosphate, and greigite, an iron sulfide. Vivianite is often found in sediments and peat bogs on Earth, as well as in areas with decaying organic matter. Some forms of microbial life can produce greigite."
Perseverance collected "Sapphire Canyon" mudstone samples from Neretva Vallis within Jezero Crater. Onboard instruments identified vivianite (an iron phosphate) and greigite (an iron sulfide) in multi-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks. The minerals appear to have formed from chemical reactions between deposited mud and preserved organic matter shortly after lake-bottom deposition. On Earth, similar mineral formation commonly results from microbial metabolism that consumes organic matter and produces such minerals as byproducts. The mineralogical evidence therefore constitutes a potential biosignature suggestive of ancient microbial activity, while remaining provisional pending further analysis.
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