Evidence of ancient life in the universe, outside of Earth, has been an obsession for scientists for decades, and they think they just found it on Mars.

Analysis of a sample collected by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover contains potential biosignatures, meaning it could be evidence of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature. While NASA says that the sample needs more data or further study to definitely prove life on Mars, acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy said in a press conference that this is "the clearest sign of life that we've ever found."

"This finding by Perseverance, launched under President Trump in his first term, is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars," said Duffy. "NASA's commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue as we pursue our goal of putting American boots on Mars' rocky soil." (Sign up for Mary Rooke's weekly newsletter here!)

NASA's Perseverance rover collected the sample in July 2024 after it entered Cheyava Falls during an exploration of the "Bright Angel" formation, near an ancient river valley (Neretva Vallis) that was created by rushing water into the Jezero Crater, according to the space agency.

During the exploration of Cheyava Falls, the rover picked up what appeared to be colorful spots on the arrowhead-shaped rock that could have been left behind by ancient microbial life. Organic carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus would have been used as potential microbial life's energy source, according to Perseverance scientist Joel Hurowitz of Stony Brook University, New York, and lead author of the paper.

"The combination of chemical compounds we found in the Bright Angel formation could have been a rich source of energy for microbial metabolisms," Hurowitz said. "But just because we saw all these compelling chemical signatures in the data didn't mean we had a potential biosignature. We needed to analyze what that data could mean." (ROOKE: The Left's Ticking Time Bomb Is Blowing Up In Their Face)

Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, praised the publication of the data. She said that while "astrobiological claims, particularly those related to the potential discovery of past extraterrestrial life, require extraordinary evidence," getting this evidence "into a peer-reviewed publication is a crucial step in the scientific process."