A Martian rock that could contain signs of life has scientists like Katie Stack Morgan, a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and deputy project scientist on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover project, excited.

This “really compelling sample” found by the rover could answer the question of whether life existed on Mars, Stack Morgan said. News week.

The rock, nicknamed Cheyava Falls, after a crevasse in the Grand Canyon, was discovered in July while exploring Jezero Crater.

The rover’s instruments found organic compounds in the sample; essential ingredients necessary for the formation of life.

“This is exactly the kind of chemistry that microbes on Earth step in and exploit as an energy source to power their own microbial metabolism,” Stack Morgan said. News week.

The arrowhead-shaped rock measures 1 meter by 0.6 meters (3.3 feet by 2.9 feet) and is one of 25 samples collected so far by the Perseverance Rover that could be delivered to Earth by a future return mission.

“We’re really looking forward to getting this sample back, because there might be signs of life lower than what we can detect with your eye,” Stack Morgan said.

“You can see the structure in there that could be a fingerprint that life has left behind, and that’s really exciting for us, and it’s a structure that we’re very excited to check out and bring back to the House.

“We have what we think is a potential bio-signature, something that could have been formed by life, but that requires further research. We have the building blocks of life in these rocks.

“First of all, of course we have the organic molecules, so we have proof that these are organic molecules. Of course, organics don’t mean life is there, because organics can have a biological or non-biological origin.

“Certainly the presence of organic matter makes you think, because this is life as you know it, right? It’s made up of these organic molecules.

“It’s the first aspect that excites us about rock, it’s one of the things we look for.

“Then we have these leopard spots. We call them leopard spots because they are little white spots in an otherwise red rock.

“The rock is of course red because it contains iron. When you combine the iron in the rock, water and organic matter, you get these chemical reactions – on Earth, microbes are often involved.

“The question is, is life involved in this reaction or not? Because it’s just chemistry, you can get this to happen without life being involved, but here on Earth, life is involved in this type of reaction.”