Sign of Life On Mars?  

There is hope that soil samples obtained from the planet could contain signs of life as new study shows that a crater found on the surface of Mars was the location of an ancient lake. Previous research suggested that the Jezero crater may have once been a lake, and a new study published on Friday in Science Advances supports that theory. Researchers from UCLA and the University of Oslo came to the conclusion that the crater eventually filled with water, depositing sediment layers on the floor. The lake drained, and a delta was formed by the river's transported sediments. The existence of these lake sediments had long been suspected from satellite images, but ground-penetrating radar is the first to confirm it.

The discovery gives scientists optimism that they may discover proof that extinct life once flourished on the now-desiccated Red Planet once Perseverance's geological samples from the crater are returned to Earth. The journal Science Advances published the researchers' results on January 26. 

“Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring--not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive... If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds.” ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos (Space Exploration)

Insights From ‘Perseverance’: 

• The formation process of the sediments was found by researchers using the ground-penetrating radar of the Perseverance rover. According to David Paige, a professor at UCLA, stated, "From orbit we can see a bunch of different deposits, but we can't tell for sure if what we're seeing is their original state, or if we're seeing the conclusion of a long geological story." "We must look below the surface to determine how these things formed."
• Between May and December 2022, Perseverance plowed into the 'Jezero' crater, sending down radar signals and recording pulses that were bounced back up from a depth of around 20 meters. The generated pictures display interpretable rock strata that provide insight into the formation process of the sediments. In one instance, scientists discovered that the sediments on the crater floor resembled those that were deposited in Earthly lakes."The basal delta sediments' horizontality and regularity in the radar cross sections suggest that they were deposited in a low-energy lake environment."
• Researchers composed a meaningful piece of writing which says that : 'If there was life on Mars, sediment samples would show evidence of it; otherwise, it's plausible that microbiological life existed in the crater during its time filled with water.'  Since its 2021 landing, Perseverance has been gathering samples from Mars in preparation for its eventual return to Earth.

“Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe.”

― Ron Garan, from The Orbital Perspective: Lessons in Seeing the Big Picture from a Journey of 71 Million Miles