Is there life on Mars?

What is Cheyava Falls?

Cheyava Falls is a rock about 1 m (3.3 ft) long at the edge of Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley that fed Jezero Crater. NASA’s Perseverance rover found it in July 2024 and drilled a core from it on Jul 21, 2024. The rock has millimeter-size light patches ringed by dark material, which the team called “leopard spots”.[3]

On Sep 10, 2025, NASA said that core, named Sapphire Canyon, contains a “potential biosignature”, following a paper in the journal Nature. NASA defines that as “a substance or structure that might have a biological origin but requires more data or further study” before anyone can say whether life was involved.[2]

The spots hold two iron minerals, vivianite and greigite. On Earth, vivianite often forms around decaying organic matter, and some microbes make greigite. But NASA also says these minerals can form without life, for example at high temperatures or in acidic water. The rocks show no sign of either, yet project scientist Katie Stack Morgan said: “we cannot rule them out.”[2] The Nature paper itself doesn’t claim life; it says measurements in laboratories on Earth are needed to tell where the minerals and organic matter came from.[4]

A study published in June 2026 confirmed large carbon molecules spread through these rocks, but its lead author said how they formed “remains unknown.”[20][5]

What other signs of life have rovers found?

• Organic molecules. NASA’s Curiosity rover found carbon-based molecules in 3-billion-year-old mudstone in 2018, and in 2025 the largest yet: chains of 10 to 12 carbon atoms. NASA says such molecules can also form without life.[6][7] In February 2026, NASA scientists reported that the non-living sources they considered couldn’t fully explain how much of these molecules there was, so life is a “reasonable” hypothesis. They also said Curiosity’s data alone can’t tell.[8]
• Methane. Curiosity measures small amounts of methane at Gale Crater that rise and fall with the seasons. Europe’s Trace Gas Orbiter, watching from higher up, sees almost none. NASA says the source could be geology or biology, and the puzzle isn’t solved.[6][9]
• The Viking tests, 1976. NASA’s two Viking landers ran experiments that found “unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity” in the soil “but provided no definitive evidence for the presence of living microorganisms.”[10]
• A meteorite from Mars. In 1996 some scientists said the meteorite ALH84001, found in Antarctica, held tiny fossils. A 2022 study found its organic material formed through reactions between water and rock, not life.[11]

Was there life on Mars?

Nobody knows, but Mars once had places where microbes could have lived. In 2013 NASA said rock drilled by Curiosity showed that ancient Mars “could have supported living microbes”: the rock had formed in water that was not “harshly oxidizing, acidic or extremely salty,” with the chemical ingredients life uses, in what NASA later described as an ancient lake in Gale Crater.[12][21] Jezero Crater, where Perseverance landed, also held a lake, and NASA says its delta rocks are “a great environment for entombing signs of ancient life.”[13]

Could life exist on Mars today?

NASA says scientists don’t expect to find anything living at the surface; they are looking for signs of life from billions of years ago, when Mars was warmer and wetter.[1] The surface is harsh, and the European Space Agency says organic molecules survive best underground, away from radiation.[14]

A 2024 study of marsquakes recorded by NASA’s InSight lander suggested that rock 11.5 to 20 km (7 to 12 mi) down may be soaked with liquid water.[15] Other scientists say the data don’t require water, so treat it as an open question.[16]

What would prove it?

Most likely, testing samples in laboratories on Earth. The Sapphire Canyon core is still aboard Perseverance. The NASA–ESA Mars Sample Return mission that was meant to bring it home lost its funding when Congress’s FY2026 spending agreement, signed into law on Jan 23, 2026, declined to support it, and the European Space Agency’s director general said that “at least according to today’s plans” it will not go ahead.[17][18]

Two other missions plan to look. Europe’s Rosalind Franklin rover, scheduled to launch in late 2028, will drill 2 m (6.6 ft) down to look for signs of past life.[14] China says its Tianwen-3 mission will launch around 2028 and bring samples back around 2031.[22][19]

Sources

1. NASA Science — Mars: FactsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
2. NASA JPL — NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last YearPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
3. NASA JPL — NASA’s Perseverance Rover Scientists Find Intriguing Mars RockPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
4. Nature — Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars (Hurowitz et al., Nature, 2025)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
5. Planetary Science Institute — What new analyses reveal about the Bright Angel formation on MarsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
6. NASA JPL — NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material, Mysterious Methane on MarsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
7. NASA Science — NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on MarsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
8. NASA Science — NASA Study: Non-biologic Processes Don’t Fully Explain Mars OrganicsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
9. NASA JPL — First You See It, Then You Don’t: Scientists Closer to Explaining Mars Methane MysteryPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
10. NASA Science (Astrobiology) — Viking ProjectPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
11. NASA Astrobiology — An Update from ALH84001Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
12. NASA JPL — NASA Rover Finds Conditions Once Suited for Ancient Life on MarsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
13. NASA JPL — NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deciphers Ancient History of Martian LakePrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
14. ESA Exploration Science — ExoMars Rosalind FranklinPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
15. PNAS — Liquid water in the Martian mid-crust (Wright, Morzfeld and Manga, PNAS, 2024)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
16. PNAS — Liquid water might not be the only answer (Xiao et al., PNAS letter, 2025)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
17. U.S. House Committee on Appropriations — Division A – Commerce, Justice, Science: Joint Explanatory Statement (Mars Sample Return, p. 54)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
18. Aerospace America (AIAA) — European Space Agency rethinks Mars plans as it kicks off a mission-dense 2026Secondary · checked Oct 4, 2026
19. Xinhua — China unveils international partners for Tianwen-3Secondary · checked Oct 4, 2026
20. Science Advances — Spatially distributed complex organic matter detected in an ancient river valley in Jezero crater, Mars (Murphy et al., Science Advances, 2026)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
21. NASA JPL — Curiosity Peels Back Layers on Ancient Martian LakePrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
22. China National Space Administration (CNSA) — China celebrates Space Day with a sneak peek at Tianwen 3's tech (Apr 24, 2026, from China Daily)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026