Signs of Life on Mars?: Scientific Exploration Unravels Mysteries of Universe

Editorial

15:10 JST, September 24, 2025

Are living creatures on Earth solitary beings in the vast universe? Or, is life abundant throughout the universe? It can be said that a research result has taken us one step closer to answering these fundamental questions.

On Sept 10, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that it may have found traces of life in Martian rocks. NASA discovered minerals such as iron phosphate and iron sulfide in a sample collected by its Perseverance rover on Mars.

These minerals are said to be normally produced in association with microbial metabolism. This is a significant discovery possibly indicating that life once existed on Mars.

While Mars’ surface is now a dry, desert-like world, the discovery site is believed to have been a lake basin billions of years ago. It is profoundly moving if microorganisms thrived in the mud and the rover has uncovered the ancient traces over a long period of time.

However, these minerals could also form under high-temperature conditions unrelated to life. The focus now will be on whether they can be definitively confirmed as minerals that originated from microorganisms.

To reach a conclusion, the sample must undergo detailed analysis at facilities on Earth. NASA initially planned to return the sample collected by the rover to Earth.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has come out with a policy to drastically cut NASA’s budget. This makes it highly likely that many scientific exploration missions, including transporting the Mars sample, will be forced to be canceled.

Meanwhile, in the United States, emerging companies, such as SpaceX, are actively pursuing manned exploration of the Moon and Mars. The hope is that the ways to achieve transport of the sample from Mars will be explored by using private-sector technological capabilities.

In Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency garnered global attention as it successfully brought back samples from asteroids to Earth using the unmanned probes Hayabusa and Hayabusa2.

In fiscal 2026, JAXA will launch the MMX (Martian Moons exploration) mission that aims to bring back samples from Phobos, one of Mars’ moons, via an unmanned probe. Phobos is believed to have accumulated dust scattered from Mars, likely presenting an opportunity to contribute to solving the mysteries of possible life on Mars.

If it is confirmed that life also originated on Mars, life would no longer be a unique condition that originated only on Earth.

In recent years, space development has emphasized perspectives such as commercial activities and security. However, it will also be crucial to advance scientific exploration from a broader perspective — one that seeks to unravel the origins of the universe and life.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 24, 2025)