Overview

• Peer‑reviewed results published in Nature and detailed at a NASA briefing describe minerals and organics in a Jezero Crater core as a compelling potential sign of ancient microbial activity.
• Perseverance detected vivianite (iron phosphate) and greigite (iron sulfide) closely associated with organic carbon in reaction‑front patterns nicknamed “poppy seeds” and “leopard spots.”
• The core, collected in July 2024 from the Cheyava Falls outcrop in the Bright Angel formation at the edge of Neretva Vallis, is one of the rover’s most promising samples to date.
• Researchers, including lead author Joel Hurowitz, stress that nonbiological chemistry could produce similar features, and outside experts echo the need for caution.
• Definitive tests likely require returning the sample to Earth, but the Mars Sample Return effort faces cost and schedule uncertainty after slips from the early 2030s into the 2040s.