Perseverance 360: Unusual Rocks and the Search for Life on Mars
Is that a fossil ? Looking through recent images of Mars taken by the new Perseverance rover may seem a bit like treasure hunting, with the possibility of fame coming to the first person to correctly identify a petrified bone , a rock imprinted by an ancient plant , or any clear indication that life once existed on Mars . Unfortunately, even though it is possible that something as spectacular as a skeleton could be identified, most exobiologists think it much more likely that biochemical remnants of ancient single-celled microbes could be found with Perseverance's chemical analyzers . A key reason is that multicellular organisms may take a greater amount of oxygen to evolve than has ever been present on Mars. That said, nobody's sure , so please feel free to digitally magnify any Perseverance image that interests you -- including the featured 360-degree zoomable image of the rocks and ridges surrounding Perseverance's landing location in Jezero Crater . And even though NASA-affiliated scientists are themselves studying Perseverance's images, if you see anything really unusual , please post it to popular social media . If your sighting turns out to be particularly intriguing, scientifically , it is likely that NASA will hear about it.