Our Perseverance Mars rover has obtained rock core samples with the most abundant organic molecules it's ever detected on the Red Planet. These molecules are not a definitive sign of life — organics can be made by many natural processes, including the interaction of rock and water — but one thing is for certain: Perseverance captured the samples it was sent to find.⁣ ⁣ After over a year on Mars, the rover arrived at a fan-shaped rocky outcrop, called “Wildcat Ridge,” where billions of years ago, a river once flowed. The rock cores obtained by Perseverance are each about the size of a piece of classroom chalk. The abundance of organics in the samples is the highest yet found by Perseverance. One of the rocks from Wildcat Ridge is especially high in a certain class of complex organic compounds known as aromatics. The rover's SHERLOC instrument found them all throughout the sample.⁣ ⁣ Organics don't necessarily mean life; they can be geological in origin. We will bring the samples back to Earth, analyze them in labs around the world, peer review the results, and only then could we say whether they are evidence of ancient life beyond Earth (or not). ⁣ ⁣ Image descriptions:⁣ Image 1 – Perseverance rover’s robotic arm extends over layered rocks in the face of a cliff in the delta.⁣ ⁣ Image 2 - The area where the rover extracted samples. The ground is a dark grey, while rocks that range in sizes appear in a lighter reddish-tan color. Drill holes mark where the rover has drilled.⁣ ⁣ Image 3 – Side-by-side pictures of cylinders of rock samples inside the drill of Perseverance rover. The sample on the left is called “Hazeltop” and the right sample is “Bearwallow" There are four bevels around the edge of the cylinders. The rock sample looks grainy and dense inside the cylinders.⁣ ⁣ Image 4 – A second set of cylinders of rock. The left is sample “Swift Run” and “Skyland,” respectively. The rock core samples have ridges and appear larger in grain.⁣ ⁣ Image 5 – A scan view from SHERLOC, shows a grid of dots over a rock’s surface.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Mars #NASAPerseverance #SpaceNews #SpaceRocks #SearchForLife #Mars2020⁣