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00:00After roaming the red planet for four years, NASA's Perseverance rover has collected unprecedented
00:06evidence that ancient microbes may once have thrived on Mars.
00:12A year ago, we thought we found what we believe to be signs of microbial life on the Mars
00:19surface.
00:20And so, we put it out to our scientific friends to pressure test it, to analyze it.
00:25And after a year of review, they've come back and they said, listen, we can't find another
00:32explanation.
00:34In the rocks of a dry riverbed, Perseverance found organic carbon, a building block of life,
00:40as well as specs the scientists dubbed poppy seeds and leopard spots, full of iron phosphate
00:45and iron sulfide.
00:47These same chemical compounds are found on Earth when microorganisms feed on organic matter.
00:52Today, we are really showing you how we are kind of one step closer to answering humanity's
00:59one of their most profound questions.
01:01And that is, are we truly alone in the universe?
01:04And so, they've done the analysis on these leopard spots.
01:08And we think they are potentially made by some sort of ancient life.
01:14This finding by our incredible Perseverance rover is the closest we've actually come to
01:19discovering ancient life on Mars.
01:23Scientists have not yet ruled out that these deposits could be produced by non-biological
01:27processes.
01:29They say the samples need to be analyzed further, ideally on Earth, to confirm the findings.
01:35With the operation currently hampered by budget issues, NASA is now searching for cheaper
01:39ways to get the samples into labs.
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