--- title: NASA Discovery Is the "Closest We Have Ever Come to Discovering Life on Mars" | TIME 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. canonical: https://time.com/video/ScVZuRfD/ og:title: NASA Discovery Is the "Closest We Have Ever Come to Discovering Life on Mars" og: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. og:url: https://time.com/video/ScVZuRfD/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ScVZuRfD/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA Discovery Is the "Closest We Have Ever Come to Discovering Life on Mars" twitter: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. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ScVZuRfD/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Science # NASA Discovery Is the "Closest We Have Ever Come to Discovering Life on Mars" > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: NASA Discovery Is the "Closest We Have Ever Come to Discovering Life on Mars" [Watch (HLS stream): NASA Discovery Is the "Closest We Have Ever Come to Discovering Life on Mars"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ScVZuRfD.m3u8) (3:18)  _Published 2025-09-11. 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._ --- Sep 12, 2025 4:20 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Life on Mars? Maybe](/video/3cCRL532/) ### Life on Mars? Maybe [NASA's Perseverance Rover Successfully Lands on Mars](/video/vfU7oIIi/) ### NASA's Perseverance Rover Successfully Lands on Mars [NASA Reveals New Discoveries to Help in Search for Life in Space](/video/pL5Slgdq/) ### NASA Reveals New Discoveries to Help in Search for Life in Space --- ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NASA Discovery Is the \"Closest We Have Ever Come to Discovering Life on Mars\"","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. 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