NASA Finds Possible Signs of Microbial Life on Mars

The rover collected the recently described sample, named Sapphire Canyon sample, at a location known as the Bright Angel rock formation. This formation consists of fine-grained muds and coarse-grained conglomerates, a type of sedimentary rock composed of gravel-sized particles cemented by finer sediment grains. Planetary scientist Joel Hurowitz, from Stony Brook University, who led the study published in the journal Nature, said a ‘potential biosignature’ was detected in billion-year-old sedimentary rocks. This was in the form of two minerals that seem to have formed as a result of chemical reactions between the mud from the Bright Angel formation and the organic matter also present in that mud. They are: vivianite, an iron phosphate mineral, and greigite, an iron sulfide mineral.