Overview

• Perseverance’s July 2024 core sample, dubbed Sapphire Canyon, was drilled from the Cheyava Falls outcrop in the Bright Angel formation within Neretva Vallis at Jezero Crater.
• Rover instruments SHERLOC and PIXL detected organic carbon and iron‑rich minerals—vivianite and greigite—organized in “poppy seed” specks and “leopard spot” rings consistent with redox reaction fronts.
• NASA and study authors describe the signals as potential biosignatures rather than proof of life, noting plausible nonbiological pathways and the need for laboratory analyses on Earth.
• The peer‑reviewed results were published Sept. 10 in Nature and announced at a NASA briefing where officials emphasized that definitive tests await sample return.
• The finding comes from relatively younger sedimentary rocks, suggesting Mars may have hosted energy‑rich environments later than previously thought if the signals prove biological, yet Mars Sample Return faces funding uncertainty under the current U.S. budget proposal.