Perseverance finds complex organic carbon in Martian mudstones
A study published June 24 in Science Advances reports that NASA’s Perseverance rover identified intact macromolecular organic carbon (MMC) in two mudstones at the Bright Angel outcrop in Jezero Crater, an area that once held flowing water. It is the first time complex, intact organic carbon has been identified at multiple sites on the Martian surface.
The carbon was detected by the rover’s SHERLOC instrument in the Cheyava Falls and Walhalla Glades rocks. MMC is a large, carbon-based molecule that can be produced by living organisms but can also form abiotically through processes such as hydrothermal heating or meteorite impacts. The researchers are explicit that they cannot yet determine where or how the molecules formed.
The significance is one of distribution as much as detection: finding organic-bearing mudstones thousands of kilometers from the deposits Curiosity studied in Gale Crater suggests the chemical ingredients and conditions for life may have been widespread on early Mars. Confirming whether the signatures are biological will require laboratory work, modeling, and ultimately the return of the rover’s cached samples to Earth — a mission that remains unfunded and years away.