Mars rovers serve as scientists' eyes and ears from millions of miles away - here are the tools Perseverance used to spot a potential sign of ancient life NASA's search for evidence of past life on Mars just produced an exciting update. On Sept. 10, 2025, a team of scientists published a paper detailing the Perseverance rover's investigation of a distinctive rock outcrop called Bright Angel on the edge of Mars' Jezero Crater . This outcrop is notable for its light-toned rocks with striking mineral nodules and multicolored, leopard print-like splotches. By combining data from five scientific instruments, the team determined that these nodules formed through processes that could have involved microorganisms. While this finding is not direct evidence of life, it's a compelling discovery that planetary scientists hope to look into more closely.

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The Mars rover Perseverance captured a dust devil moving across the rim of a crater. A new compilation of images from NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover appears to show a dust devil twister dancing across the surface of the red planet, about 2.5 miles away from the six-wheeled geologist. NASA said only the lower portion of the twister was seen moving along the western rim of Mars' Jezero Crater, on Aug. 30, 2023. The images were snapped on Perseverance's 899th day on Martian soil. NASAs Mars Perseverance rover snapped several images of a dust devil moving across the Martian surface.

NASA's Perseverance Rover has collected a sample of Martian rock to be returned to Earth which could contain signs of life. But don't get too excited yet, as this particular tube won't reach a terrestrial laboratory where it can be studied for another 10 years or so. It has been roaming Mars to look for sampling sites that might contain ancient microbes and organics for almost a year now. In that time, it has completed its first of four search campaigns, which focused on the crater floor and the base of the Neretva Vallis delta. NASA's Perseverance Rover has collected a sample of Martian rock which could contain signs of life. NASA's Perseverance rover (pictured) chooses a sample using its suite of onboard instruments to detect whether organic molecules are present in some rock before coring.

NASA's Perseverance Rover has finally deposited its first sample of Martian rock to be returned to Earth. The car-sized robot began its mission to find ancient biomarkers in the clay on the Red Planet on April 22, which could indicate if alien life ever existed there. It has been roaming around a delta to look for sampling sites that might contain ancient microbes and organics, before drilling down to extract a specimen. Most of those it has collected so far remain in its belly, however this one is the first to be dropped at the base of the delta, and may be retrieved in a future mission. This titanium tube (pictured) contains a core of igneous rock extracted from a region of Mars' Jezero Crater called'South Séítah' on January 31 NASA's Perseverance rover (pictured) chooses a sample using its suite of onboard instruments to detect whether organic molecules are present in some rock before coring. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, with a'near-dead' dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere.

NASA's Perseverance rover has been aptly named because -- nearly two months after beginning its search into past life on Mars -- it has still yet to find any viable samples. The car-sized robot began its mission to find ancient biomarkers in the Martian clay on April 22, which could indicate if alien life ever existed on the Red Planet. It has been roaming around an ancient delta to look for sampling sites that might contain ancient microbes and organics. The rover then drills down to extract a specimen that it plans to leave at the base of the delta to be retrieved in future missions. However, NASA has since revealed that, so far, no samples have been successfully collected. The fragile clay materials the rover targets have been known to fracture, crack and crumble during the abrasion and coring process.

Nasa's Perseverance rover has reached a key moment in its search for evidence of past life on Mars. The car-sized robot, which landed on the Red Planet in February last year, will today (Tuesday) begin climbing up an ancient delta to look for sampling sites that might contain ancient microbes and organics. This ascent will be for reconnaissance, as Perseverance goes'walkabout' looking for rocks with the best chance of holding secrets about whether alien life once existed on Mars. As it makes its way back down, the rover will then collect some of these specimens from the Jezero Crater and leave the samples at the base of the delta to be retrieved by future missions. Nasa's Perseverance rover (pictured) has reached a key moment in its search for evidence of past life on Mars. The engineering cameras give detailed information in colour about the terrain the rover has to cross.

ABOVE VIDEO: NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is trying to cover more distance in a single month than any rover before it – and it's doing so using artificial intelligence. On the path ahead are sandpits, craters, and fields of sharp rocks that the rover will have to navigate around on its own. At the end of the 3-mile journey, which began March 14, 2022, Perseverance will reach an ancient river delta within Jezero Crater, where a lake existed billions of years ago. This delta is one of the best locations on Mars for the rover to look for signs of past microscopic life. Using a drill on the end of its robotic arm and a complex sample collection system in its belly, Perseverance is collecting rock cores for return to Earth – the first part of the Mars Sample Return campaign.

NASA's Perseverance rover has tried out a nifty new feature for the first time, which let it'spit out' a piece of Mars rock that had been clogging its sampling tube. The trick means that Perseverance can now continue taking samples of rock from the Red Planet to search for possible signs of ancient life. The SUV-sized vehicle has been on the Red Planet since February 2021, and is slowly trundling through the Jezero Crater taking rock samples for later retrieval. On December 29, while retrieving a sample from a rock, its sixth so far, NASA engineers found they couldn't get the rock to go into the storage area. This was due to a pebble-sized piece of debris obstructing the robotic arm, blocking the entrance to the tube docking area - nearly a month later, this has been solved. NASA used an untested'un-choking procedure', that involved pointing the drill containing a clogged test tube towards the ground and rotating it at high speed.

NASA's Perseverance rover hit a snag while trying to capture its latest piece of rock from Mars, with a pebble-sized bit of debris stopping it from storing the sample. The SUV-sized vehicle has been on the Red Planet since February 2021, and is slowly trundling through the Jezero Crater taking rock samples for later retrieval. The Perseverance team, tweeting as the rover, wrote: 'I recently captured my sixth rock core and have encountered a new challenge. Seems some pebble-sized debris is obstructing my robotic arm from handing off the tube for sealing/storage.' It retrieved the sample on December 29, or sol 306 on Mars, where it successfully cored and extracted the sample, but the transfer to the tube failed. On January 7, NASA discovered there was a small piece of rock inside the entrance to the tube docking area, blocking it from entering.