We have spent all week, and several of the past few weeks, talking about finding evidence of past life, if not life itself, on Mars in the coming years. With Perseverance on the ground, NASA is now planning the sample return mission that will bring rocks back from the red planet, allowing us to study them up close with all the tools possible.

What will finding evidence look like? In a poster presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference this week, graduate student Sara Schreder-Gomes and Dr. Kathleen Benison examined halite crystals from Australia. Embedded in those crystals were possible microorganisms such as algae and prokaryotes. Their work was essentially a feasibility study of whether or not we can find life inside potential samples from Mars. Mars, of course, is a very dry planet, and there are lots of similar evaporite minerals on the surface that could be sampled.

And all you need are really good microscopes and an idea of what to look for. With this poster, Sara and Dr. Benison have provided future scientists with just such information.

More Information

Optical Recognition of 830 Million Year Old Microorganisms Trapped in Bedded Halite:  Implications for Future Return Samples from Mars (LPSC poster)