Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Perseverance rover is scurrying around on the Red Planet, wheeling and dealing with Jezero Crater and inspecting up-close the site of this former lake, perchance with beach-front property.

Newly found by the Mars machinery are eye-catching circular rock structures. They are attention-grabbers for good reason. They resemble ones formed by microbial communities in some lakes on Earth.

Modern, living microbial mats in Bridger Bay, Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake, in October 2013 when the lake was nearly 5.5 feet below its historical average of 4,200 feet.
Image credit: Utah Geological Survey

But the finding underscores, perhaps, how Mother Nature on the Red Planet can flaunt and daunt interpretations of finding evidence for life on that world. Or, on the other hand, could we be missing something?

Take a read of my new Space.com story – “If the Perseverance rover found evidence of life on Mars, would we recognize it?” – at:

https://www.space.com/perseverance-rover-search-for-life-on-mars-is-difficult