NASA to Announce New Perseverance Finding From Jezero Crater; Rock Sample May Contain Possible Biosignatures

NASA on Wednesday announced a rare news conference to discuss a "new finding" by the Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater, raising public interest because the sample in question — a rock nicknamed "Sapphire Canyon" — was collected in July 2024 from an ancient river system in Neretva Vallis and may contain chemical signs that researchers describe as potential biosignatures.

The agency said the briefing will be held Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. Eastern and will include NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, the agency's senior scientist for Mars exploration Lindsay Hays, Perseverance project scientist Katie Stack Morgan, and Joel Hurowitz, a scientist who presented related research earlier this year. Perseverance has been exploring Mars since it landed in 2021 and has been sampling deposits in Jezero Crater, a site chosen because it once hosted a river and delta system where sediments could preserve past environmental and chemical information.

The announcement follows a study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March 2025 in which Hurowitz and colleagues described unusual textural features in mud-like rocks from Neretva Vallis. The team reported spotting small, seed-like forms and darker spots — informally called "poppy seeds" and "leopard spots" — in layers believed to be ancient lake and river deposits. Instruments on Perseverance detected concentrations of iron and phosphorus associated with those features; on Earth, similar mineral assemblages can form when microbes break down organic matter, the study said.

Social media accounts and space news observers noted that NASA rarely convenes such media events for routine science updates, and they pointed to the conference's wording and lineup of speakers as consistent with the agency preparing to discuss a significant result. Some posts linked the scheduled briefing to Hurowitz's March presentation, whose title included the phrase "The Detection of a Potential Biosignature by the Perseverance Rover on Mars."

NASA has previously used high-profile briefings to announce discoveries that prompted discussion about life beyond Earth. In June 2018, the agency held a news conference to report that the Curiosity rover had detected complex organic molecules in 3.5-billion-year-old rock in Gale Crater. In September 2020, NASA participated in an international announcement about the detection of the gas phosphine in Venus' atmosphere, a finding that led to debate about possible biological and unknown chemical sources.

Agency officials have been careful in public statements about extraterrestrial life. The forthcoming briefing will indicate what additional tests, analyses or corroborating data the team has produced since the March conference and how scientists interpret the chemical signatures seen in the Sapphire Canyon sample. NASA has not confirmed the discovery of past or present life on Mars or any other world.

Scientists and mission team members have emphasized that multiple lines of evidence and rigorous testing are required before claims about biosignatures can be confirmed. Perseverance carries instruments designed to characterize rock chemistry and texture and has been caching samples for eventual return to Earth under a separate campaign. The Sept. 10 event is expected to provide specific details about the new finding and the analyses that support it.

Observers said the announcement will be closely watched by the planetary science community and the public. NASA's approach to such findings typically involves cautious language and peer-reviewed publication of results after initial briefings. The agency's scheduled briefing will be live-streamed and will include the scientists who have worked directly with the Perseverance data from Neretva Vallis, offering the first official account of what investigators call the Sapphire Canyon sample and the evidence tied to it.

For now, scientists note that the presence of iron and phosphorus in localized features within ancient sedimentary rocks is an intriguing data point but not, by itself, definitive proof of past life. The Perseverance mission continues to collect contextual information to help determine whether the chemical and textural signatures observed are best explained by biological activity, abiotic chemical processes, or post-depositional alteration of the rocks. NASA's Sept. 10 briefing will be the next formal step in that process.