Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers have been part of an international team behind what could be the most compelling evidence of life beyond Earth, after NASA’s Perseverance rover identified promising signs in a rock sample from Mars.
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The rover, exploring Jezero Crater, collected a specimen that showed minuscule “leopard spot” markings containing two iron-rich minerals: vivianite and greigite. On Earth, both of these are typically linked to microbial activity, making the discovery one of the clearest bio-signatures yet reported on the red planet.
Associate Professor David Flannery, an astrobiologist from QUT, was among the 89 co-authors of the peer-reviewed paper published in Nature. He explained that the rock held exactly the kind of features scientists had long hoped to find on Mars. According to Flannery, these characteristics could point to signs of microbial life in the planet’s subsurface — a breakthrough many researchers have been waiting for.
The findings raise exciting questions about whether life may have evolved independently on Mars or whether it might have been transported between planets in the distant past. Another possibility is that Mars has its own distinct carbon cycle unrelated to life, something only closer study of the samples on Earth can reveal.
Bringing those samples back, however, remains a challenge. The Mars Sample Return program faces uncertainty following major cuts to NASA’s budget, and the timing of the mission is unclear. Until then, researchers can only analyse the data remotely.
Despite the obstacles, the discovery has reinvigorated discussion about the potential for life still existing beneath Mars’ surface. While the surface is now too cold and dry to support living organisms, Flannery noted that subsurface aquifers could provide a more hospitable environment, similar to how microbes survive deep underground on Earth.
QUT has played a vital role in this mission beyond supplying scientists. The university helped design and build the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), one of the seven instruments on the Perseverance rover. QUT experts also created PIXLISE, the software used by NASA scientists to interpret the rover’s findings.
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For now, the Martian rock provides tantalising evidence — not a final answer — in humanity’s quest to know whether we are alone in the universe. But thanks to contributions from Queensland researchers, the possibility of life on Mars feels closer than ever.
Published 17-September-2025
