'Clearest sign' of alien life on Mars found by NASA

Strange 'leopard spot' markings on a Martian rock could finally be the sign we've been waiting for that alien microbes once lived on the Red Planet

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A detailed study of rocks on the Red Planet has revealed intricate patterns resembling leopard spots – “the clearest sign of life we've ever found on Mars,” according to NASA's acting administrator Sean Duffy.

The rock, thought to be around 3.5 billion years old, was discovered by NASA's Perseverance rover in July 2024. Ever since, planetary scientists have been investigating possible explanations for what could have created the markings.

While the patterns may have formed through geological processes, the scientists explained in a recent Nature paper that ancient Martian microbes are the current leading theory behind the leopard-patterned rock.

In the hope of obtaining a more definitive answer, Perseverance has taken and stored a fragment of the rock. If all goes to plan, this sample will be returned to Earth one day, where it can be thoroughly examined for signs of past life.

LEOPARD SPOTS AT BRIGHT ANGEL

Today, Mars is a dry, dead world – but that hasn’t always been the case. Until around three billion years ago, Mars’s surface was covered with flowing rivers and vast lakes of liquid water.

Here on Earth, wherever you find water, you can expect to find life somewhere nearby. To uncover whether this was also true on Mars, NASA rovers have spent the last 20 years hunting for clues to prove whether the Red Planet was once habitable – or even inhabited.

The Perseverance rover was exploring a region known as Jezero Crater, which was a lake in Mars’s distant past. Similar regions on Earth are havens for microbial life.

While exploring an outcrop of rocks known as the Bright Angel formation, Perseverance spotted a rock with a striking pattern resembling leopard spots.

“We took just about every possible observation we could of the [patterned] rock and the Bright Angel formation as a whole,” study lead Prof Joel Hurowitz from Stony Brook University, in the US, told BBC Science Focus.