NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft has made a groundbreaking discovery: polymeric carbon detected in rocks from Jezero Crater’s Bright Angel Formation. This finding provides the most extensive evidence yet of complex organic molecules present on Mars. While this does not confirm extraterrestrial life, it bolsters the idea that the essential building blocks of life may have been prevalent on Mars billions of years ago.

Utilizing the SHERLOC instrument on the spacecraft’s robotic arm, the Perseverance team has identified hundreds of organic detections across various rocks in the Bright Angel outcrop, a light-toned geological feature in the Neretva Gorge, an ancient river channel that once fed Jezero’s paleo-lake.

The detected substance is polymeric carbon (MMC), a vast network of carbon atoms that can be found in rocks and meteorites on Earth and may originate from either biological or abiotic sources.

Due to its resilience, MMC can endure the harsh conditions on Mars that would typically degrade simpler organic molecules.

“The Martian surface is subjected to harmful radiation and chemical oxidants that affect organic matter, and laboratory simulations suggest that the longevity of organic materials in Mars-like environments, especially near the surface, depends on factors such as organic molecule type and surrounding mineral composition,” explained Dr. Ashley Murphy, a postdoctoral fellow at the Planetary Science Institute.

“The MMC identified in the Bright Angel mudstone is either resistant to degradation or shielded by minerals like clay and iron-rich Martian soils, or perhaps both.”

Some rocks show MMC associated with secondary carbonate and sulfate minerals that form due to fluid alteration after rock deposition.

In other instances, the material is found within the silicate-rich primary matrix of the mudstone itself.

These various relationships imply that organic matter could have been incorporated through multiple methods at different times in the rock’s geological history.

“Although the specific formation process of the MMC discovered in the Bright Angel mudstone remains uncertain, this is among the most intriguing discoveries to date,” Dr. Murphy noted.

These findings also indicate the presence of organic-bearing mudstones located more than 3,500 km from where NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected similar materials at Gale Crater. This suggests that Mars’ potential for habitability and organic material availability may have been widespread billions of years ago.

“This is promising for the habitability of Mars,” Murphy stated.

“It indicates that billions of years ago, organic matter was not just locally present, but may have been more broadly available in the ancient lakes and rivers of Mars.”

The researchers have proposed several potential sources for the organic matter: it may have come from carbon-rich meteorites or interplanetary dust, formed through abiotic geochemical reactions involving water and rocks, or resulted from biological processes.

“Biological, geological, and meteorite origins of the observed organic matter are all plausible,” the researchers mentioned.

“A deeper understanding of the origins, distribution, and historical changes of organic carbon will require high-resolution analyses in ground-based laboratories, which could be achieved by returning these samples to Earth.”

These findings were published in the journal Scientific Progress.

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Ashley E. Murphy et al. 2026. Complex spatially distributed organic matter detected in an ancient river valley in Jezero Crater on Mars. Scientific Progress 12(26); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adx00