By Charlie Levin
For years, the Fermi Paradox has puzzled scientists. In fact, ever since we first saw the stars, we have been wondering: are we alone in the universe?
The Fermi Paradox is the idea that there is a paradoxical relationship between the sheer size of the universe, estimated at one septillion stars (and ever expanding), and the fact that, no matter how hard we have searched, we haven’t found enough concrete evidence to prove that we aren’t by ourselves. And it has been on authors’, artists’, and scientists’ minds for a while now.
However, we may have just made a breakthrough that could change everything we know: we may have found biosignatures on one of our closest planetary neighbors.
Mars has been a focus of bioastronomy for a while and has been the site of many unmanned missions. Being in the Goldilocks zone and showing signs of ancient rivers and oceans, it seems like a perfect place to harbor life.
The Perseverance Rover, launched in July of 2020, always had a goal to collect samples and find signs of ancient life. It seemed like a long shot. But, according to NASA, the rover may have stumbled upon a breakthrough.
In a press release from NASA’s JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) on September 10th, NASA stated that “[the] Jezero Crater could preserve evidence of ancient microbial life.” Located along an ancient riverbed, Cheyava Falls, a rock in the crater, was an object of interest ever since its discovery. The rock contained “spots,” indicating it contained carbon-based organic compounds.
After further study, NASA decided to collect a sample. It was discovered that the sample contained carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, and iron, with carbon and phosphorus being imperative to living organisms. And the way the minerals were arranged was special too. Like in sedimentary rocks on Earth, which contain these minerals around “decaying organic matter,” as NASA stated, the combination of these atoms and minerals is what scientists deem a “potential fingerprint for microbial life.”
While this is a major breakthrough in the field of astrobiology, we didn’t necessarily find life or even prove that it once existed extraterrestrially. NASA also stated that these potential biosignatures could be produced without the presence of life.
All scientific claims and studies have to go through a peer review process and be backed up by even more research and evidence, and this case is no exception. To truly prove that there was once Martian life, this research would have to be proven over and over again, showing that it is not just a blip in the data.
So, while this is a good start, we still have to wait for the answer, and we still have to keep wondering: are we alone?