--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Life on Mars? Maybe image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7362fb10eff25bc/6998cdf89fbc7c303cd9ad88/poster_ea321f.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 17, 2025 # Life on Mars? Maybe by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-video/7370683/life-on-mars-maybe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-video/7370683/life-on-mars-maybe/"},"headline":"Life on Mars? Maybe","datePublished":"2025-09-17T00:03:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:54:30.036Z","description":"When the Perseverance rover landed in Mars’s Jezero crater—a formation that long ago was Jezero lake—in February, 2021 it turned west. West is where the riverbeds, the deltas, the sites of ancient gushing water once were. In July, 2024, after covering 18 miles in nearly three and a half years, it arrived at a quarter-mile-wide river valley that is home to a 3.2-ft.-long rock NASA scientists have dubbed Cheyava Falls—and there it hit paydirt. As a new paper in Nature reports, a sample Perseverance drilled from the rock may contain potential biosignatures of long ago microbial life.","url":"https://time.com/collections/time-video/7370683/life-on-mars-maybe/","keywords":["Space","astronomy","NASA","Technology","Media","Mars","Aviation","Art","Research","astronauts","international space station","cosmos","Astronaut","Space Exploration","scientists","iss","exploration","Science","Business","Include"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7362fb10eff25bc/6998cdf89fbc7c303cd9ad88/poster_ea321f.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7362fb10eff25bc/6998cdf89fbc7c303cd9ad88/poster_ea321f.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-video/7370683/life-on-mars-maybe/","name":"Life on Mars? Maybe"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Life on Mars? Maybe","description":"When the Perseverance rover landed in Mars’s Jezero crater—a formation that long ago was Jezero lake—in February, 2021 it turned west. West is where the riverbeds, the deltas, the sites of ancient gushing water once were. In July, 2024, after covering 18 miles in nearly three and a half years, it arrived at a quarter-mile-wide river valley that is home to a 3.2-ft.-long rock NASA scientists have dubbed Cheyava Falls—and there it hit paydirt. As a new paper in Nature reports, a sample Perseverance drilled from the rock may contain potential biosignatures of long ago microbial life.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3cCRL532/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2025-09-16T20:03:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3cCRL532.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/time-video/7370683/life-on-mars-maybe/","duration":"PT5M38S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/time-video/7370683/life-on-mars-maybe/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```