00:00NASA's Perseverance rover has been exploring Mars since 2021, conducting myriad experiments
00:10and looking for life on the red planet. Experts have long been hopeful that we would find signs
00:14of life on Mars, and now they say their hopeful Perseverance has already found it. The rover has
00:20been rolling around an area called the Jezero Crater, or where experts believe used to be a
00:24river delta, areas which on Earth often team with life. Perseverance has been looking under the
00:29surface of this area using its ground-penetrating radar, which allows it to image subterranean areas
00:34to a depth of more than 65 feet. Their underground imaging has now confirmed that the area was likely
00:39a lake bed at some point, eventually drying into a river delta. On Earth, areas like this are ripe
00:45with microbial life, meaning experts picked just the right place to investigate for signs of life
00:50on Mars. Perseverance has already been digging and collecting samples to eventually send back to
00:54scientists for further analysis and is 60% of the way to filling its coffers. And experts suspect if
01:00life once did exist in the area, they're quite confident those samples likely already include
01:05signs of that very life. However, those samples aren't expected to make the trip to Earth until 2033.
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