{"id":221062,"date":"2025-08-27T12:07:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/strange-spotted-rock-on-mars-could-reveal-signs-of-ancient-life"},"modified":"2025-08-27T12:07:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:07:51","slug":"strange-spotted-rock-on-mars-could-reveal-signs-of-ancient-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/strange-spotted-rock-on-mars-could-reveal-signs-of-ancient-life","title":{"rendered":"Strange spotted rock on Mars could reveal signs of ancient life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/strange-spotted-rock-on-mars-could-reveal-signs-of-ancient-life.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Learning how to study the leopard-like spots found on both terrestrial and Martian rocks can prepare scientists for when the real samples arrive from space. A curious red Martian rock nicknamed Sapphire Canyon has scientists excited, as its spotted appearance hints at possible organic origins. On Earth, researchers tested a powerful laser technique, O-PTIR, on a similar rock found by chance in Arizona, proving it can rapidly and precisely reveal a material\u2019s chemical makeup. This high-resolution method could play a key role in analyzing Mars samples once they arrive, adding to its growing track record in NASA missions like Europa Clipper.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, NASA\u2019s Mars rover Perseverance collected an unusual rock sample. The rock, named Sapphire Canyon, features white, leopard-like spots with black borders within a red mudstone and might hold clues about sources of organic molecules within Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Here on Earth, in Review of Scientific Instruments, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology used a technique called optical photothermal infrared spectroscopy (O-PTIR) to study a visually similar rock. They wanted to determine if O-PTIR can be applied to the Sapphire Canyon sample when it is eventually brought here for study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learning how to study the leopard-like spots found on both terrestrial and Martian rocks can prepare scientists for when the real samples arrive from space. A curious red Martian rock nicknamed Sapphire Canyon has scientists excited, as its spotted appearance hints at possible organic origins. On Earth, researchers tested a powerful laser technique, O-PTIR, on [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}