{"id":602256,"date":"2026-04-23T20:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602256\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:33:11","slug":"what-new-mars-discoveries-say-about-the-possibility-of-ancient-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602256\/","title":{"rendered":"What new Mars discoveries say about the possibility of ancient life"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re getting closer and closer to definitely answering the question: Did life ever exist on Mars<\/a>?<\/p>\n

April has been a pivotal month for the search for ancient life on the now-barren red planet, where NASA aims to send the first humans in the years ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First, researchers spotted geological features on Mars that could be the remnants of a dried-up ocean. Then, another team of researchers studying a sample from NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered seven organic molecules that had never before been observed on Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neither discovery directly confirms that anything ever lived on Mars, but both finds help further point the needle in that direction.<\/p>\n

In honor of Earth Day, see these photos of our planet from space<\/p>\n

1 of 12<\/p>\n

The crew of Artemis II captured a breathtaking image of a celestial event known as an “Earthset,” in which the Earth dropped below the lunar horizon. The image is reminiscent of the iconic “Earthrise” photo that NASA astronaut Bill Anders captured in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission that showed our planet rising on the lunar horizon.<\/p>\n

Here’s everything to know about the most recent Mars discoveries ahead of NASA’s next space<\/a> mission to the red planet.<\/p>\n

‘Bathtub ring’ is evidence of ancient Mars ocean\"A<\/p>\n

A portion of a photo snapped by NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover while traversing the Kimberley formation on its journey south toward the center of Gale Crater. While not directly related to the study, researchers say it’s illustrative of a dry area on Mars that may have once had water.<\/p>\n

Because water is a key ingredient for life to exist, researchers have long been interested in finding signs of it on Mars and other planets in our solar system \u2013 and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Mars is widely believed to have once had some amount of water on its surface, it’s been unclear just how much or in what kind of body it formed. Now, researchers in a new study published April 15 in the journal Nature<\/a> believe they have evidence of no mere lake or stream, but a giant ocean that millions of years ago was present on Mars.<\/p>\n

Informed by models of oceans on Earth, California Institute of Technology geologists Abdallah Zaki and\u00a0Michael Lamb<\/a> studied topographic data of Mars taken by orbiters to find a flat band of land like a continental shelf, suggesting an ocean once roiled in the Martian northern hemisphere. Covering a staggering third of the planet’s surface, the feature wraps “the contours of where land meets ocean like a ring that remains around a drained bathtub,” according to a press release<\/a> announcing the find.<\/p>\n

And where there is (or was) water, there could also be life.<\/p>\n

10 days, 10 photos. Here are the most stunning images from Artemis II<\/p>\n

1 of 10<\/p>\n

The Artemis II mission launches April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The four-person crew aboard the Orion spacecraft hitched a ride to orbit atop NASA’s giant 322-foot Space Launch System rocket. Launching atop 8.8 million pounds of thrust, the SLS is the most powerful rocket NASA ever launched, about 17% more powerful than the iconic Saturn V rocket used during the Apollo era.<\/p>\n

NASA’s Curiosity rover finds new evidence of past life on Mars\"A<\/p>\n

A ‘selfie’ taken by the Curiosity rover taken on the Martian surface.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the next recent Martian discovery.<\/p>\n

Six years after NASA’s car-sized Curiosity rover\u00a0collected, drilled and analyzed a rock sample in 2020, the results are in: The sample includes “the most diverse collection of organic molecules ever found on the Red Planet,” NASA said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The findings, published in an April 21 study led by University of Florida geologist Amy Williams in the journal Nature<\/a>, reveal that of the 21 carbon-containing molecules identified, seven were detected for the first time on Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, scientists can’t determine whether these organic molecules were created biologically \u2013 suggesting past life on Mars \u2013 or whether they’re the result of simple geologic processes. But the discovery alone “renewed confirmation that ancient Mars had the right chemistry to support life,” NASA said.<\/p>\n

It’s far from the first time that Curiosity or its Perseverance cousin have found evidence of ancient Martian life.<\/p>\n

Scientists in February announced that Curiosity had detected organic compounds on a rock sample<\/a>\u00a0that on Earth are most often produced by living things. And in September 2025, NASA announced that a rock sample collected by Perseverance was found to possibly be preserving evidence of ancient microbial life<\/a>, known as a biosignature.<\/p>\n

NASA to send nuclear-powered vehicle to Mars in 2028\"An<\/p>\n

An artist’s concept of the Space Reactor-1 mission to send the 1st nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars<\/p>\n

So, what comes next?<\/p>\n

The recent discoveries come as Curiosity and its fellow Perseverance rover<\/a> continue to scour very different parts of the Martian surface. While NASA is focused on its Artemis campaign to return humans to the moon<\/a>, the agency also looks to send the first astronauts in the years ahead to the red planet \u2013 putting boots (and eyes) directly on the ground.<\/p>\n

First, though, NASA plans in 2028 to launch the first nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars<\/a> in what could be a pivotal test of a technology that could also be a power source for human surface operations. The Space Reactor-1 vehicle would reach Mars in 2030 and deploy three helicopters similar to the retired Ingenuity aircraft<\/a>\u00a0that would survey for potential human landing sites and use radar to identify sources of underground water.<\/p>\n

Such fission nuclear-powered technology used in the spacecraft could be vital on Mars where dust storms known to block the sun for weeks at a time would make solar power unreliable.<\/p>\n

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New signs uncovered that Mars may once have hosted life<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We’re getting closer and closer to definitely answering the question: Did life ever exist on Mars? April has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[44192,196,718,260887,7986,79,193],"class_list":{"0":"post-602256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-curiosity-rover","9":"tag-mars","10":"tag-nasa","11":"tag-organic-molecules","12":"tag-researchers","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}