Cheyava Falls

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Cheyava Falls rock

Cheyava Falls is a rock discovered on Mars in 2024 by NASA's Perseverance rover during its exploration of the Jezero crater. This rock, named after a Grand Canyon waterfall, has drawn significant attention due to its potential as an indicator of ancient life on Mars. The rover's instruments detected organic compounds within the rock, which are essential for all known life. [1] [2] According to NASA, Cheyava Falls "possesses qualities that fit the definition of a possible indicator of ancient life". [3] [1]

Contents

Discovery

Unusual rock, named Cheyava Falls, was found in 2024 by NASA's Perseverance rover in Jezero crater. Cheyava Falls is characterized by large white calcium sulfate veins and bands of reddish material, indicative of hematite, a mineral that gives Mars its rusty color. The veins are "filled with millimeter-size crystals of olivine". [1] The rock features millimeter-sized off-white splotches surrounded by black material, resembling "leopard spots". These spots contain iron and phosphate, elements often associated with microbial life. [1] [3] [4] [5] According to a seven-step scale called Confidence of Life Detection (CoLD) used by NASA astrobiologists, the rock is on Step One, showing "possible signal" of life. [1]

Perseverance at the site of the Cheyava Falls rock Perseverance's Selfie With 'Cheyava Falls' - PIA26344.gif
Perseverance at the site of the Cheyava Falls rock

The "arrowhead-shaped rock" was found at the northern edge of Neretva Vallis area, [6] on 18 July 2024, [7] and is 3.2 by 2 feet (0.98 m × 0.61 m). [1] On 21 July 2024, Perseverance took a sample of the rock that became its 22nd core sample that can be delivered to Earth by a future mission. [1] The rover made a "selfie" with a rock on 23 July 2025. [8] The sample from Cheyava Falls is called the "Sapphire Canyon", [9] while the formation where Cheyava Falls were found is called the "Bright Angel", a set of rocky outcrops on the northern and southern edges of Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley 400 metres (1,300 ft) wide that was carved by water rushing into Jezero crater. The rock was studied by two instruments: the Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) and Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC). [10]

Beyond the nickname for a single sampled boulder, mission geologists now use "Cheyava Falls member" for a ~0.5 m-thick mudstone containing rare centimeter-scale olivine-rich horizons. At the northern Bright Angel–Margin-unit contact, it overlies the monomict, matrix-supported olivine granule conglomerate of the Fern Glen Rapids member and is itself overlain by the laminated mudstones of the Walhalla Glades member; the Tuff Cliff base is not exposed at this site. [11]

Potential biosignature

On 10 September 2025, NASA reported a "potential biosignature" finding in Cheyava Falls: organic-carbon–bearing mudstones hosting sub-millimetre nodules and millimetre-scale reaction fronts enriched in ferrous iron phosphate and iron sulfide, consistent with vivianite and greigite imply low-temperature, post-depositional redox reactions between organics and Fe–S–P minerals; these textures and chemistries qualify as potential biosignatures but requiring further study and sample return for confirmation. [10] [12] On Earth, vivianite is frequently found in sediments, peat bogs, and around decaying organic matter. Similarly, certain forms of microbial life on Earth can produce greigite. [10]

If confirmed, this biosignature would mean that there was microbial life on Mars around 3.5 billion years ago. According to geologist Michael Tice: [13]

If the Cheyava Falls results ultimately do lead to the proof of ancient life on Mars ... that means two different planets hosted microbes getting their energy through the same means at about the same time in the distant past. That could suggest that early life learns how to survive in this way regardless of where it originated.

The same organic materials can be produced by non-biological processes which require "hot conditions" like volcanic activity; the rock location suggests that it was underwater, and there is no detected past volcanic activity in that region. [13]

Further research

NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission was designed to collect the samples collected by Perseverance and deliver them to Earth. The mission was deemed "financially unsustainable" and was proposed to be cancelled by the Trump administration. [14]

The article in The Economist compared the sample return from Cheyava Falls with the return of a stranded astronaut from the book (and movie) The Martian . [15]

According to the first author of the Nature article Joel Hurowitz, "labs on Earth could look for ways of achieving the same effects without either biology or high temperatures"; but even if it can be done, the result might fail the Knoll criterion: "to be evidence of life, an observation has to not just be explicable by biology; it has to be inexplicable without it". [15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "NASA's Perseverance Rover Scientists Find Intriguing Mars Rock". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved 31 July 2024.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  2. ↑ "Perseverance Finds a Rock With 'Leopard Spots'". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved 31 July 2024.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  3. 1 2 Koren, Marina (26 July 2024). "We Might Get Thrilling News About Aliens … in 2040". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 30 July 2024. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  4. ↑ "Leopard Spots". NASA Scientific Visualization Studio. NASA. 6 June 2025. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
  5. ↑ "PIA26368: Perseverance Finds a Rock With 'Leopard Spots'". NASA/JPL Photojournal. NASA/JPL-Caltech. 25 July 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
  6. ↑ Wizevich, Eli (29 July 2024). "Mars Rover Finds Three Possible Signs of Ancient Life on a Single Rock". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  7. ↑ Strickland, Ashley (26 July 2024). "NASA's Perseverance rover may have just found what it was looking for on Mars". CNN. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  8. ↑ "Perseverance's Selfie With 'Cheyava Falls'". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved 25 August 2024.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  9. ↑ "Meet the Mars Samples: Sapphire Canyon (Sample 25) - NASA Science". 10 April 2025. Archived from the original on 10 September 2025. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  10. 1 2 3 "NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year". NASA. 10 September 2025. Archived from the original on 10 September 2025. Retrieved 10 September 2025.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  11. ↑ Jones, Alexander; Barnes, Robert; Gupta, Sanjeev; Paar, Gerhard; Horgan, Briony; Garczynski, Bradley; Broz, Adrian; Klidaras, Athanasios; Stack, Kathryn; Hurowitz, Joel; Russell, Patrick; Iii, Jim Bell; Maki, Justin; Wogsland, Brittan; Simon, Justin; Kanine, Oak; Mangold, Nicolas; Randazzo, Nicolas; Brown, Adrian; Flannery, David (9 July 2025). A fluvio-lacustrine environment preserved in the Jezero crater inlet channel, Neretva Vallis (Mars). EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025, Helsinki, Finland, 7–12 Sep 2025, EPSC-DPS2025-888. Copernicus Meetings.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Hurowitz, Joel A.; et al. (10 September 2025). "Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars". Nature. 645 (8080): 332–340. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09413-0. PMC   12422973 . PMID   40931152.
  13. 1 2 Landau, Elizabeth (12 September 2025). "This is the best evidence yet for ancient life on Mars". National Geographic . Archived from the original on 11 September 2025. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  14. ↑ Patel, Kasha (10 September 2025). "NASA discovers 'clearest sign of life that we've ever found on Mars'". The Washington Post .
  15. 1 2 "NASA has found a Martian rock with what may be signs of life". The Economist. Archived from the original on 14 September 2025. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  16. ↑ "Perseverance Captures 'Bright Angel' in 360 Degrees". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  17. ↑ "Mastcam-Z Views the 'Cheyava Falls' Workspace". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  18. ↑ "Perseverance Rover sol 1196". areo.info. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  19. ↑ "Perseverance Rover sol 1197". areo.info. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  20. ↑ "Mastcam-Z Views 'Leopard Spots' in Perseverance's Drill Bit". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
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