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Found on the edge of an ancient river valley by the Perseverance rover and named Chevaya Falls, the veiny sedimentary material contains organic compounds and leopard-like spots that indicate chemical reactions chemosynthetic microbes could have once used for energy.of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia."On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface.
When Perseverance found and then drilled Chevaya Falls, it found the strongest such signs we've seen on Mars to date. Spots like this form when a chemical reaction involving the hematite in the rock turns a patch from red to white, releasing iron and phosphate, and causing black rings to form. These reactions can produce chemistry that microbes can use as an energy source.in volcanic rock. This means that there are other formation mechanisms that don't invoke the presence of microbes that can explain the observed features.
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