Overview
- A Science Advances paper published June 24 reported that Perseverance’s SHERLOC instrument mapped hundreds of macromolecular‑carbon detections in two Bright Angel mudstones and recorded the first such detection on an unprepared rock surface at Cheyava Falls.
- Raman spectroscopy analysis shows the carbon has G‑band parameters consistent with amorphous carbon and the organics appear in different mineral settings, one mixed with a silicate matrix and another associated with secondary carbonate and sulfate minerals.
- Scientists say the rover’s measurements cannot determine origin and the carbon could be meteoritic, produced by abiotic geologic processes, or biogenic, so the biological question remains open.
- Perseverance has cached samples that include the Sapphire Canyon core containing these organics, but changes to the Mars Sample Return plan and budgetary uncertainties mean definitive laboratory tests on Earth are likely delayed by years.
- Taken with earlier organic detections by Curiosity at Gale Crater, the new Jezero results strengthen the case that complex organics were distributed on ancient Mars and make returned samples the critical next step for isotope, molecular and microscopic analyses that can test for past life.