NASA’s Mars rover makes ‘fantastic’ find in search for past life

Since July, NASA’s Perseverance rover has drilled and collected four slim cores of sedimentary rock, formed in what was once a lake on Mars. They are the first of this type of rock to be gathered on another world — and scientists are excited because at least two of the cores probably contain organic compounds.

On Earth, organics, which are carbon-containing molecules, are often associated with living things, although they can be formed without the involvement of organisms.