NASA Perseverance Rover Discovers The Building Blocks Of Life

The main mission for the Perseverance rover as it explores the surface of Mars inside the Jezero Crater is to search for any signs of life. NASA is saying that Perseverance has discovered the building blocks of life on the surface of Mars.

The rover has identified carbon-containing organic chemicals and rocks that have been examined from the floor of the crater where it’s operating. The discovery was announced this week, and NASA is clear that it is not saying that it has detected life on Mars.

To be clear, NASA says organics can be produced by biological and non-biological means. Additional research is needed to determine what process generated the organic chemicals discovered in the rocks from the crater.

NASA scientists also admit that they won’t know a lot about the organic chemicals until a future mission goes to Mars and retrieves the samples Perseverance has gathered. “This is a question that may not be solved until the samples are returned to Earth, but the preservation of organics is very exciting,” Luther Beegle, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.