Did Life Exist on Mars? Other Planets? With AI’s Help, We May Know Soon
This image taken by NASA's Perseverance rover on Aug. 6, 2021, shows the hole drilled in a Martian rock in preparation for the rover's first attempt to collect a sample. It was taken by one of the rover’s hazard cameras in what the rover's science team has nicknamed a "paver rock" in the "Crater Floor Fractured Rough" area of Jezero Crater.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Scientists have discovered a simple and reliable test for signs of past or present life on other planets—"the holy grail of astrobiology."
In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a seven-member team reports that with 90% accuracy, their artificial intelligence-based method distinguished modern and ancient biological samples from those of abiotic origin.
"This routine analytical method has the potential to revolutionize the search for extraterrestrial life and deepen our understanding of both the origin and chemistry of the earliest life on Earth," says Dr. Hazen. "It opens the way to using smart sensors on robotic spacecraft, landers and rovers to search for signs of life before the samples return to Earth."
Most immediately, the new test could reveal the history of mysterious, ancient rocks on Earth, and possibly that of samples already collected by the Mars Curiosity rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. The latter tests could be conducted using an onboard analytical instrument nicknamed "SAM" (for Sample Analysis at Mars).
"We'll need to tweak our method to match SAM's protocols, but it's possible that we already have data in hand to determine if there are molecules on Mars from an organic Martian biosphere."
"The search for extraterrestrial life remains one of the most tantalizing endeavors in modern science," says lead author Jim Cleaves of the Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC.