The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) rises from a cloud of dust and hydrogen some 1,600 light-years from Earth. Illuminated by nearby stars, its familiar silhouette reminds us that form and meaning often emerge together. Through different instruments, the horse may vanish, yet the underlying reality remains—inviting us to see anew. (from New Thinking Allowed)
NASA Streamed live on Jun 30, 2026 Watch a live, virtual conversation with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman to hear progress on our plans to build a Moon Base on the lunar surface. Administrator Isaacman and Carlos García-Galán, Moon Base program manager, discuss the next set of awards for new lunar lander missions and preview upcoming opportunities as we work toward building a sustained presence on the Moon. More about the Moon Base: https://www.nasa.gov/moonbase Credit: NASA
A “resounding win for Mars science.”
Published Jun 26, 2026 (Futurism.com)
After more than five years of roaming the desolate and dusty landscapes of the Martian surface, NASA’s Perseverance rover has come across some of the most intriguing evidence yet of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Science Advances, scientists confirmed that Perseverance had discovered a rock that contained “complex organic matter” — the building blocks of life, in biological parlance — in two rocks in a formation dubbed Bright Angel.
The outcropping is located inside the Jezero crater, which scientists believe is an ancient lakebed that dried out billions of years ago. The scientists found that samples from the rocks that Perseverance originally found in 2024 contained macromolecular carbon (MMC), large networks of carbon atoms commonly found in Earth rocks containing fossilized biological carbon and meteorites.
An initial analysis of the rocks made headlines last year after NASA announced it had spotted “potential biosignatures,” pointing at compelling “leopard spots” that may have been left behind by microbial life.
The latest paper fleshes out the compelling case even further, confirming the detection of MMC in the rocks by using one of Perseverance’s scientific instruments to detect their composition by shining an ultraviolet laser at them.
“Measurements of two mudstones show hundreds of organic detections, making this the most robust organic detection in Jezero crater thus far, and, to our knowledge, the only detection of macromolecular carbon on a natural rock surface on Mars,” the paper reads.
Hold your horses on the idea that they’ve confirmed extraterrestrial life, however: MMC can form both through biotic and abiotic processes.
“While the specific formation mechanism of the MMC detected in the Bright Angel mudstones remains unknown, this is still one of the most exciting findings to date,” said co-lead and Planetary Science Institute postdoctoral researcher Ashley Murphy in a statement, calling the discovery a “resounding win for Mars science.”
The MMCs might also original off world; they could either “be from meteorites or cosmic dust; abiological processes like hydrothermal reactions; or they could be biological in nature,” as Washington University planetary scientist Paul Byrne told Science News.
The scientists suggest fine-grained sediment carried by water through an ancient river channel hardened into the rocks Perseverance analyzed using its Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument.
Scientists were baffled how close to the surface — mere microns away — the MMCs were preserved, considering the extreme environment.
“The Martian surface environment includes radiation and chemical oxidants that are destructive to organics, and terrestrial laboratory simulations have shown that the survival time of organics in Martian-like conditions — especially at or near the surface — depends on factors such as the type of organic molecule and the surrounding minerals,” Murphy explained.
“The MMC detected in the Bright Angel mudstones is either resistant to degradation and/or has been sufficiently shielded by other minerals, such as clays, or iron-rich Martian soil,” she added.
It’s yet another intriguing chapter in our efforts to probe the planet’s surface for evidence of ancient microbial life. Intriguingly, more than 2,000 miles away, NASA’s Curiosity rover detected organic molecules as well, raising the possibility that life may have once spread over a vast area.
However, to confirm the presence of microbial life, samples would need to be shipped back to Earth, an extremely complicated and expensive plan that has turned into a painful political football.
“The science payload of the Perseverance rover was not designed to distinguish between organics formed via abiotic and biotic processes but was instead selected to identify compelling rocks to be collected for possible return to Earth for more rigorous testing,” coauthor and NASA Jet Propulsion Lab research scientist Kyle Uckert told Space.com.
Unfortunately, after years on life support, the Trump administration effectively killed NASA’s proposed Sample Return mission, which means it will take some time to get more answers.
More on life on Mars: Now That NASA Found Signs of Life on Mars, It’s Clear Trump Made a Massive Error
I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
By Chelsea Gohd published 2 days ago (Space.com)
“Measurements of two mudstones show hundreds of organic detections, making this the most robust organic detection in Jezero crater.”
Could Martian mudstones be holding evidence of ancient microbes? New findings strengthen the case that the Red Planet once held life.
New data from NASA’s Perseverance rover has revealed complex carbon in two Martian mudstones found in Mars’ Jezero crater, the same location where previous evidence of possible ancient life has been found. Scientists think this macromolecular (meaning large) complex carbon, could hold evidence that ancient microbial life once existed in the same sedimentary material, according to one new paper describing these observations. “Measurements of two mudstones show hundreds of organic detections, making this the most robust organic detection in Jezero crater,” the paper reads.
This comes soon after the news last year that Perseverance found what has been dubbed the strongest evidence of potential biosignatures, or hints of life, on Mars.
“Carbon is the primary building block for life on Earth, and all living things are made up of complex organic macromolecules,” co-lead author Ashley Murphy, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute, told Space.com. “On Earth, [macromolecular carbon] is often found in extremely old rocks and in some cases it is the only organic evidence of past microbial life.
“Since early Mars may have been more similar to Earth,” Murphy added, “we may anticipate finding [macromolecular carbon] in old Martian rocks too, so we are searching for these organic macromolecules on Mars and other planetary bodies to determine whether the necessary chemical ingredients and environmental conditions to support life have ever existed there.”You may like
Perseverance landed on Mars in 2021 in Jezero Crater, an expansive crater thought to once be a lake that could have possibly harbored life. This landing site was in fact chosen because scientists thought it could have some of the best evidence for possible ancient life on the planet. And so far, in Perseverance’s extensive explorations — which have now officially taken the rover the distance of a marathon on Mars — that prediction seems like it’s turning out to be true.
In this new research, a team of scientists co-led by Murphy used Perseverance’s spectrometer SHERLOC (the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), which uses lasers to identify an area or object’s chemical and mineral makeup, to map the distribution of organic matter in the individual mudstones. The crew found organic carbon inside two mudstones.
Furthermore, these carbon-filled mudstones were found in the same location as the last year’s discovery of a potential biosignature found in a sedimentary rock on the Red Planet, which scientists say is still the strongest evidence that life could have once existed on early Mars. In this discovery, Perseverance found a rock now-named “Cheyava Falls” with distinctive “leopard spots.”
These types of rock marking can be created in high heat or extremely acidic temperatures, but neither of these conditions are thought to have existed in the area. However, the markings can also be formed by the presence of life. So, while this rock wasn’t conclusive evidence of past life on Mars, it certainly provided significant evidence that is now supported by this new data.
With these observations, the rover has made two main findings.What to read next
First, Perseverance has found organic, large, complex carbon in mudstones in Bright Angel, a rocky area on the northern and southern edges of Neretva Vallis, which is an ancient river valley in the Jezero area. And not only did Perseverance make hundreds of detections of organic carbon in these rocks, but the researchers also state that this is “the only detection of macromolecular carbon on a natural rock surface on Mars.”
“This is also the first detection of MMC in a mudstone on Mars outside of Gale Crater, suggesting that the availability of organics may have been widespread across the planet billions of years ago,” co-lead author Kyle Uckert, the SHERLOC deputy principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Space.com.
While both studied mudstones have organic carbon in their interiors, according to these observations from Perseverance, there were some differences between the two rocks. The carbon in one mudstone was found mixed with primarily silicate minerals, while the other was filled with carbon mixed with secondary carbonate and sulfate minerals. The team also found that the carbon in both rocks was relatively intact, meaning the specimens might be resistant to radiation and oxidation or that it may have been recently exposed to the Martian surface.
Secondly, the team found that, in this identified carbon, Perseverance has detected evidence of potential biochemical interactions. These interactions left behind features in the two mudstones that look just like features created by microscopic life in sediments on Earth. This begs the question: Did ancient microbes on Mars really live in the sediments in this once-flowing river?
Maybe, maybe not. While that would certainly be one explanation, it’s also possible that the carbon could have been created without life.
“There are multiple potential pathways to form abiotic organics on Mars,” the authors state in this paper, clarifying that this, even compounded with other existing data, cannot conclusively say whether or not life created what Perseverance has observed.
“The science payload of the Perseverance rover was not designed to distinguish between abiotic and biotic processes, but was instead selected to identify compelling rocks to be collected for possible return to Earth for more rigorous testing,” Uckert told Space.com. Uckert added that there could be many non-life reasons behind the presence of this complex carbon, “for example, it may have been delivered to the surface via meteoritic infall, or formed through hydrothermal geologic processes,” he said.
For now, we can only wait until the next juicy bit of evidence about ancient life on Mars reveals itself.
This work was described in a paper published June 24 in the journal Science Advances.
NOVA PBS Official Jun 9, 2026 When scientists measured distant supernovas in the 1990s, the data made no sense. The universe wasn’t slowing down. It was accelerating.
Big Think Dec 14, 2022 Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_… What astronaut Ron Garan saw in space changed his life forever – here’s what it taught him. Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► / @bigthink Up next, Neil deGrasse Tyson: 3 mind-blowing space facts ► • Neil deGrasse Tyson: 3 mind-blowing space … A curious phenomenon often occurs when astronauts travel to space and look out on our planet for the first time: They see how interconnected and fragile life on Earth is, and they feel a sudden responsibility to protect it. Astronaut @RonGaran experienced this so-called “overview effect” when he first saw Earth from space. When he looked out on the planet, he saw an iridescent biosphere teeming with life, all protected by a remarkably thin atmosphere. What he did not see was the thing that society often gives top priority: the economy. For Garan, seeing Earth from space revealed problems like global warming, deforestation, and biodiversity loss are not disconnected. They are the symptoms of an underlying flaw in how we perceive ourselves as humans: We fail to realize that we are a planetary species. Learn more about Ron Garan ► https://www.rongaran.com/ Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/life/overview-ef…0:00 The lie humanity is living 1:28 Escaping Plato’s cave 2:15 What astronaut’s see in space 4:07 The orbital perspective 4:50 The ‘dolly zoom’: gain mental altitude ———————————————————————————- About Ron Garan: Former NASA astronaut, serial entrepreneur, humanitarian, and highly decorated combat fighter Ron Garan racked up 178 days in space and more than 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits between tours on the US Space Shuttle, Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and the International Space Station. During his time in space, Garan conducted four spacewalks in support of ISS construction and maintenance. Prior to those space journeys, he lived and conducted research on the bottom of the ocean in the world’s only undersea research lab, Aquarius. Before reaching the summit of his career, Garan, a former test pilot and graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School, taught hundreds of elite fighter pilots how to “up their game” as a flight instructor at the prestigious USAF Fighter Weapons School, the Air Force version of TOP GUN. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books: The Orbital Perspective, Floating in Darkness: A Journey of Evolution, and the children’s book, Railroad to the Moon. Garan is celebrated not just for his research in space but also for his humanitarian contribution to life on Earth.
NASA astronaut Ron Garan’s epiphany in space | The InnerView
TRT World Jan 16, 2023 When former F-16 fighter pilot Ron Garan went up into space for NASA, the astronaut came back down to earth a changed man. He explains to Imran Garda on The InnerView why he believes we all need to live with an “orbital perspective” to save us from ourselves. More on Ron Garan: https://www.rongaran.com/trt/00:00 Meet Ron Garan 01:10 How space changed how he sees the world 03:04 Experiencing awe 03:54 “We look absolutely ridiculous from the vantage point of space” 04:41 On colonising other planets 05:56 International space cooperation with Russia 09:15 “War is humanity’s greatest failure” 10:59 Tribalism 13:02 Moving from words to action 14:22 Feedback 15:25 Social media manipulation 18:04 On experiencing spiritual enlightenment after space trips 19:25 Militarisation of space 23:36 Billionaires in space
Substack Live with Astronaut Ron Garan
Marianne Williamson Jun 9, 2026 It was great talking live today with astronaut and social entrepreneur Ron Garan. He has a profound understanding of what it will take for humanity to evolve beyond this critical inflection point at which we find ourselves. Much of what he learned came from epiphanies gleaned while working both at the bottom of the ocean and in the further reaches of outer space. How fortunate we are to have his wisdom among us. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. You can learn more about Ron Garan at RonGaran.com and Ron Garan.Substack.com, where he is currently publishing his novel Infinite Simplicity. Subscribe to Marianne’s Substack: MarianneWilliamson.Susbtack.com
In this deep-space remnant known as IC 443 Jellyfish Nebula, plasma physics becomes visible history, as shock fronts from a stellar explosion propagate through interstellar hydrogen, compressing and exciting gas until it radiates in structured filaments of crimson light. Roughly 5,000 light-years away, the expanding debris field preserves both the thermodynamic violence of a supernova and the quiet reconfiguration of surrounding molecular clouds, offering a natural laboratory for studying how energy redistributes itself across galactic environments. (Featured image from New Thinking Allowed)
Artist’s impression of a primitive ocean on Mars, which some researchers suggested harbored more water than the Arctic Ocean on Earth. (Most of that water was later lost to space.) (Image credit: NASA/GSFC)
Recent Mars missions have revealed that the Red Planet contains far more water than previously thought, preserved primarily as underground ice, ancient buried river deltas, and deep subterranean water reservoirs. [1, 2, 3]
Latest Discoveries & News
For a look at the data being gathered by NASA’s rovers investigating these ancient, water-carved landscapes:
New Evidence of Water on Mars Thanks to NASA Curiosity … Museum of Science YouTube · Feb 23, 2023
In this deep telescopic observation of the core of the Andromeda Galaxy, gravity organizes billions of stars into a luminous spiral memory, where dense stellar populations and interstellar dust trace the long evolutionary history of a system similar to our own Milky Way. Under exceptionally stable atmospheric seeing at Nerpio, fine structural details emerge in the galactic nucleus, revealing how stellar dynamics, orbital resonance, and cosmic time converge into a single coherent field of motion. (Newthinkingallowed.com)
NOVA PBS Official May 28, 2026 To keep the universe static, Albert Einstein invented something called the cosmological constant. He later abandoned it. Decades afterward, astronomers discovered the universe’s expansion is accelerating—reviving Einstein’s controversial idea.