What Evidence Do We Have for Life on Mars?

What Evidence Do We Have for Life on Mars?

One of the main jobs of Perseverance, the Mars 2020 rover, is to find signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. So, how will it meet this goal when it reaches the red planet next year?

We’ve been studying Mars from Earth since the 1600s and from space since the ‘60s.

From the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to the now present-day Mars 2020 rover Perseverance, astrobiologists have been searching for and collecting variables for decades regarding the existence of life on mars.

And NASA’s latest rover will serve as yet another puzzle piece in the ongoing journey that is finding signs of life on mars—specifically ancient microbial life.

Perseverance will dig around in Mars’ rocks looking for fossils, gathering samples to hang onto until future missions can hopefully ferry those samples back to Earth for further study.

And Mars 2020 rover will eventually be joined by the European-Russian ExoMars rover.

Find out more about the Perseverance mission, and the long history we have with searching for life on Mars in this Elements.