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By NASA
This animation depicts water disappearing over time in the Martian river valley Neretva Vallis, where NASA’s Perseverance Mars takes the rock sample named “Sapphire Canyon” from a rock called “Cheyava Falls,” which was found in the “Bright Angel” formation. Credit: NASA Lee este comunicado de prensa en español aquí.
A sample collected by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover from an ancient dry riverbed in Jezero Crater could preserve evidence of ancient microbial life. Taken from a rock named “Cheyava Falls” last year, the sample, called “Sapphire Canyon,” contains potential biosignatures, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
A potential biosignature is a substance or structure that might have a biological origin but requires more data or further study before a conclusion can be reached about the absence or presence of life.
“This finding by Perseverance, launched under President Trump in his first term, is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “NASA’s commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue as we pursue our goal of putting American boots on Mars’ rocky soil.”
NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered leopard spots on a reddish rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in Mars’ Jezero Crater in July 2024. Scientists think the spots may indicate that, billions of years ago, the chemical reactions in this rock could have supported microbial life; other explanations are being considered.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie, made up of 62 individual images, on July 23, 2024. A rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls,” which has features that may bear on the question of whether the Red Planet was long ago home to microscopic life, is to the left of the rover near the center of the image.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Perseverance came upon Cheyava Falls in July 2024 while exploring the “Bright Angel” formation, a set of rocky outcrops on the northern and southern edges of Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley measuring a quarter-mile (400 meters) wide that was carved by water rushing into Jezero Crater long ago.
“This finding is the direct result of NASA’s effort to strategically plan, develop, and execute a mission able to deliver exactly this type of science — the identification of a potential biosignature on Mars,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With the publication of this peer-reviewed result, NASA makes this data available to the wider science community for further study to confirm or refute its biological potential.”
The rover’s science instruments found that the formation’s sedimentary rocks are composed of clay and silt, which, on Earth, are excellent preservers of past microbial life. They also are rich in organic carbon, sulfur, oxidized iron (rust), and phosphorous.
“The combination of chemical compounds we found in the Bright Angel formation could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms,” said Perseverance scientist Joel Hurowitz of Stony Brook University, New York and lead author of the paper. “But just because we saw all these compelling chemical signatures in the data didn’t mean we had a potential biosignature. We needed to analyze what that data could mean.”
First to collect data on this rock were Perseverance’s PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) and SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instruments. While investigating Cheyava Falls, an arrowhead-shaped rock measuring 3.2 feet by 2 feet (1 meter by 0.6 meters), they found what appeared to be colorful spots. The spots on the rock could have been left behind by microbial life if it had used the raw ingredients, the organic carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus, in the rock as an energy source.
In higher-resolution images, the instruments found a distinct pattern of minerals arranged into reaction fronts (points of contact where chemical and physical reactions occur) the team called leopard spots. The spots carried the signature of two iron-rich minerals: vivianite (hydrated iron phosphate) and greigite (iron sulfide). Vivianite is frequently found on Earth in sediments, peat bogs, and around decaying organic matter. Similarly, certain forms of microbial life on Earth can produce greigite.
The combination of these minerals, which appear to have formed by electron-transfer reactions between the sediment and organic matter, is a potential fingerprint for microbial life, which would use these reactions to produce energy for growth. The minerals also can be generated abiotically, or without the presence of life. Hence, there are ways to produce them without biological reactions, including sustained high temperatures, acidic conditions, and binding by organic compounds. However, the rocks at Bright Angel do not show evidence that they experienced high temperatures or acidic conditions, and it is unknown whether the organic compounds present would’ve been capable of catalyzing the reaction at low temperatures.
The discovery was particularly surprising because it involves some of the youngest sedimentary rocks the mission has investigated. An earlier hypothesis assumed signs of ancient life would be confined to older rock formations. This finding suggests that Mars could have been habitable for a longer period or later in the planet’s history than previously thought, and that older rocks also might hold signs of life that are simply harder to detect.
“Astrobiological claims, particularly those related to the potential discovery of past extraterrestrial life, require extraordinary evidence,” said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Getting such a significant finding as a potential biosignature on Mars into a peer-reviewed publication is a crucial step in the scientific process because it ensures the rigor, validity, and significance of our results. And while abiotic explanations for what we see at Bright Angel are less likely given the paper’s findings, we cannot rule them out.”
The scientific community uses tools and frameworks like the CoLD scale and Standards of Evidence to assess whether data related to the search for life actually answers the question, Are we alone? Such tools help improve understanding of how much confidence to place in data suggesting a possible signal of life found outside our own planet.
Marked by seven benchmarks, the Confidence of Life Detection, or CoLD, scale outlines a progression in confidence that a set of observations stands as evidence of life. Credit: NASA Sapphire Canyon is one of 27 rock cores the rover has collected since landing at Jezero Crater in February 2021. Among the suite of science instruments is a weather station that provides environmental information for future human missions, as well as swatches of spacesuit material so that NASA can study how it fares on Mars.
Managed for NASA by Caltech, NASA JPL built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.
To learn more about Perseverance visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance
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Bethany Stevens / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gov / karen.c.fox@nasa.gov
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 10, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Perseverance (Rover) Astrobiology Mars Mars 2020 Planetary Science Science Mission Directorate View the full article
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By NASA
Flight Engineer Joe Acaba works in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module on the International Space Station, setting up hardware for the Zero Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) experiment. Joe Acaba Space missions rely on cryogenic fluids — extremely cold liquids like liquid hydrogen and oxygen — for both propulsion and life support systems. These fuels must be kept at ultra-low cryogenic temperatures to remain in liquid form; however, solar heating and other sources of heat increase the rate of evaporation of the liquid and cause the pressure in the storage tank to increase. Current storage methods require venting the cryogenic propellant to space to control the pressure in fuel tanks.
NASA’s Zero Boil-Off Tank Noncondensables (ZBOT-NC) experiment is the continuation of Zero Boil-Off studies gathering crucial data to optimize fuel storage systems for space missions. The experiment will launch aboard Northrop Grumman’s 23rd resupply mission to the International Space Station.
When Cold Fuel Gets Too Warm
Even with multilayer insulation, heat unavoidably seeps into cryogenic fuel tanks from surrounding structures and the space environment, causing an increase in the liquid temperature and an associated increase in the evaporation rate. In turn, the pressure inside the tank increases. This process is called “boil-off” and the increase in tank pressure is referred to as “self-pressurization.”
Venting excess gas to the environment or space when this process occurs is highly undesirable and becomes mission-critical on extended journeys. If crew members used current fuel storage methods for a years-long Mars expedition, all propellant might be lost to boil-off before the trip ends.
NASA’s ZBOT experiments are investigating active pressure control methods to eliminate wasteful fuel venting. Specifically, active control through the use of jet mixing and other techniques are being evaluated and tested in the ZBOT series of experiments.
The Pressure Control Problem
ZBOT-NC further studies how noncondensable gases (NCGs) affect fuel tank behavior when present in spacecraft systems. NCGs don’t turn into liquid under the tank’s operating conditions and can affect tank pressure.
The investigation, which is led out of Glenn Research Center, will operate inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox aboard the space station to gather data on how NCGs affect volatile liquid behavior in microgravity. It’s part of an effort to advance cryogenic fluid management technologies and help NASA better understand low-gravity fluid behavior.
Researchers will measure pressure and temperature as they study how these gases change evaporation and condensation rates. Previous studies indicate the gases create barriers that could reduce a tank’s ability to maintain proper pressure control — a potentially serious issue for extended space missions.
How this benefits space exploration
The research directly supports Mars missions and other long-duration space travel by helping engineers design more efficient fuel storage systems and future space depots. The findings may also benefit scientific instruments on space telescopes and probes that rely on cryogenic fluids to maintain the extremely low temperatures needed for operation.
How this benefits humanity
The investigation could improve tank design models for medical, industrial, and energy production applications that depend on long-term cryogenic storage on Earth.
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NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomenon under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth.
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By USH
The weight of the gods was crushing, their toil beyond endurance. Let the burden pass to humankind! So speak the oldest verses carved into clay, a fragment from the Atrahasis tale of Mesopotamia. Yet what if these divine figures were not simply legends? What if the stories hint at something far older and stranger than we have allowed ourselves to believe? The name Anunnaki comes from the etched symbols of Sumerian records, their lines recounting the deeds of deities who shaped the world and watched over the Earth.
From the cradle of ancient Mesopotamia comes a story older than any empire, etched into clay tablets and whispered through time: the tale of the Anunnaki. Were they gods, symbols, or something far stranger visitors from beyond the stars who shaped human civilization? The myths of Sumer speak of creation, rebellion, giants, and a great flood. But when paired with the ancient astronaut theory, these legends take on a new dimension, one that could rewrite human history.
Who were the Anunnaki? In the ancient Sumerian texts of Mesopotamia, they are described as the offspring of An, the sky god, and Ki, the earth goddess. Their names appear across the Atrahasis epic, the Enuma Elish, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Sumerian King List, etched into clay tablets more than 4,000 years ago.
To mainstream historians, the Anunnaki are mythological gods. Yet in the ancient astronaut theory, they were real beings, extraterrestrial visitors who shaped early civilization.
Author Zecharia Sitchin popularized the idea that the Anunnaki came from Nibiru, a hidden “twelfth planet” on a long, elliptical orbit. According to his interpretation of Sumerian records, the Anunnaki faced an environmental crisis. Their planet’s atmosphere was failing, and the solution they sought was gold, which could be ground into particles and suspended as a shield.
This quest for survival brought them to Earth more than 400,000 years ago. They mined resources, altered life, and may even have engineered humanity itself.
The tablets describe how the lesser gods, the Igigi, were forced into back-breaking labor until they rebelled. To replace them, the Anunnaki created humans.
In myth, mankind was formed from clay mixed with divine blood. In Sitchin’s interpretation, this was genetic engineering: the fusion of Anunnaki DNA with Homo erectus. The first prototype was Adamu, a name that echoes the biblical Adam.
The Sumerian “Edin,” later mirrored in the Hebrew Eden, may not have been a paradise garden but an Anunnaki laboratory outpost.
Two Anunnaki brothers shaped humanity’s destiny: Enki – the god of wisdom and waters, often seen as humanity’s ally, granting knowledge. Enlil – stern and authoritarian, seeking control and fearing that humans might grow too powerful. Their rivalry runs through Mesopotamian myth, influencing stories of divine punishment, survival, and human struggle.
Over time, some Anunnaki defied the rules and took human women as partners. Their offspring were the Nephilim, giants and “mighty men of renown.” The Book of Enoch calls their fathers the Watchers, led by Shemyaza.
According to the stories, these hybrids grew violent, corrupted the world, and became uncontrollable. The solution was drastic: a great flood to wipe the Earth clean.
The Atrahasis epic, the story of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the biblical Noah all describe the same event: a chosen man warned by a god, a vessel built to preserve life, animals carried aboard, and birds released to find land. Humanity survived, but weaker, with shorter lifespans, and forever changed.
Supporters of the ancient astronaut theory believe the Anunnaki left traces in stone:
Mesopotamian ziggurats – described as “bonds between heaven and earth,” possibly landing platforms.
The Great Pyramid of Giza – aligned to true north, massive in scale, theorized as a power plant or beacon rather than a tomb.
Megalithic monuments worldwide – stone circles, cyclopean walls, and sacred sites possibly linked to Anunnaki influence.
The Sumerian King List also suggests a divine legacy, describing rulers with lifespans of thousands of years, perhaps evidence of semi-divine hybrids.
Mainstream archaeology sees the Anunnaki as symbolic deities, metaphors for cosmic order and human struggle. But in alternative history, they were real beings, extraterrestrial visitors from Nibiru, who shaped civilization, taught astronomy, metallurgy, agriculture, and law, and left their mark in myths and monuments that endure to this day.
Explore the mystery of the Anunnaki—Sumerian gods, Nibiru, genetic engineering, Nephilim, the Great Flood, and the ancient astronaut theory in the video below.
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By NASA
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is seen as it lands with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov aboard in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber The first crew to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program completed the agency’s 10th commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on Saturday.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov returned to Earth at 11:33 a.m. EDT. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and its crew. After returning to shore, the crew will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and reunite with their families.
“Splashdown! Crew-10 is back on Earth from the International Space Station marking the completion of another successful flight,” said NASA acting Administrator Sean Duffy. “Our crew missions are the building blocks for long-duration, human exploration pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. NASA is leading the way by setting a bold vision for exploration where we have a thriving space industry supporting private space stations in low Earth orbit, as well as humans exploring the Moon and Mars.”
The agency’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission lifted off at 7:03 p.m. on March 14, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About 29 hours later, the crew’s SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 12:04 a.m. on March 16. Crew-10 undocked at 6:15 p.m. Aug. 8, to begin the trip home.
During their mission, crew members traveled nearly 62,795,205 million miles and completed 2,368 orbits around Earth. The Crew-10 mission was the first spaceflight for Ayers and Peskov, and the second spaceflight for McClain and Onishi. McClain has logged 352 days in space over her two flights, and Onishi has logged 263 days in space during his flights.
Along the way, Crew-10 contributed hundreds of hours to scientific research, maintenance activities, and technology demonstrations. McClain, Ayers, and Onishi completed investigations on plant and microalgae growth, examined how space radiation affects DNA sequences in plants, observed how microgravity changes human eye structure and cells in the body, and more. The research conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory advances scientific knowledge and demonstrates new technologies that enable us to prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
McClain and Ayers also completed a spacewalk on May 1, relocating a communications antenna, beginning the installation of a mounting bracket for a future International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, and other tasks. It was the third spacewalk for McClain, the first for Ayers, and the 275th supporting space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
Crew-10’s return to Earth follows the Crew-11 mission, which docked to the station on Aug. 2 for its long-duration science expedition.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program provides reliable access to space, maximizing the use of the International Space Station for research and development, and supporting future missions beyond low Earth orbit, such as to the Moon and Mars, by partnering with private U.S. companies, including SpaceX, to transport astronauts to and from the space station.
Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewski@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 09, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Commercial Crew Humans in Space ISS Research View the full article
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4622-4623: Kicking Off (Earth) Year 14 With an Investigation of Veins
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, using its Left Navigation Camera, caught the shadow of the rover’s mast looking ahead to new terrain as the mission started its 14th Earth year on Mars. Curiosity acquired this image on Aug. 6, 2025 — Sol 4621, or Martian day 4,621 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 06:24:09 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Abigail Fraeman, Deputy Project Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025.
Today was a very special day for Curiosity as the rover celebrated the start of a 14th year on Mars. Curiosity is currently exploring the mysterious boxwork formations. On Monday, the rover positioned itself at the side of one of the ridges, where the team had spotted tantalizing hints of a complex network of razor-thin veins that may give insight into what is holding the ridges up, compared to the surrounding hollows.
In this plan, the team will use the instruments on Curiosity’s arm and mast to investigate the geometry and composition of these veins to learn more about them. APXS and MAHLI will both observe “Repechón,” a loose block with dark-toned, mottled material exposed on top, as well as “Lago Poopó,” a bright, relatively clean vein network. MAHLI will also collect a side view of “Repechón.” ChemCam will use its laser to analyze two targets, “Vicguna,” a protruding vein edge with nodular texture, and “Ibare,” which has some exposed light-toned veins. Outside of the vein investigation, ChemCam’s telescopic RMI camera will observe layering in a nearby butte and the Mishe Mokwa feature, while Mastcam will take mosaics on “Cachiniba,” a broken block, “Yapacani,” the side of another large boxwork ridge, and “Llullaillaco,” a faraway feature that we imaged from a slightly different location in a previous plan. Additional environmental monitoring observations will round out the plan, followed by a straight-line drive to the east, to an area where several large boxwork ridges intersect that the team has been informally calling “the peace sign” because of its shape.
I usually get nostalgic around landing anniversaries, or “landiversaries,” and this year, I found myself looking back through pictures of landing night. One of my favorites shows me standing next to science team member Kirsten Siebach right after we received the first images from Curiosity. The two of us have the biggest, most excited grins on our faces. We were both graduate students at the time, and both of us were writing thesis chapters analyzing orbital data over regions we hoped to explore with Curiosity one day. I was studying a layer in Mount Sharp that contained hematite, and the team named this feature “Vera Rubin ridge” when Curiosity reached it in 2017. Kirsten, who is now a professor at Rice University, was focused on the boxwork structures, pondering how they formed and hypothesizing what they might tell us about the history of Martian habitability when we reached them.
Thirteen years later, I had another big grin on my face today, as I listened to Kirsten and our incredible science team members excitedly discussing Curiosity’s new images of these same boxwork structures. I was also filled with gratitude for the thousands of people it took to get us to this moment. It was the absolute best way to spend a landiversary.
Learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments
For more Curiosity blog posts, visit MSL Mission Updates
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Last Updated Aug 07, 2025 Related Terms
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3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4618-4619: The Boxwork Structures Continue to Call to Us
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3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4620-4621: Among the Hollows and the Ridges
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