NASA's Perseverance Rover: Its Path to Finding Organics on Mars | Page 14 of 16

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This rock contains organic molecules

A close-up of the rock sample named Quartier. — A close-up of the rock sample named Quartier. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Meet Quartier, a rock target imaged by Perseverance’s WATSON and SHERLOC instruments. This week, scientists announced that Perseverance spotted signs of organic molecules in Quartier.

According to a JPL release, if the apparent organic molecules are confirmed as such, they probably were formed by geological processes (of which there were plenty!) rather than biological sources. Hate to burst your bubble, but finding fossils of incredibly small, extraordinarily ancient life was never going to be easy.

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