Organic carbon detected in Bright Angel rock formation on Mars

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https://phys.org/news/2026-06-carbon-bright-angel-formation-mars.html

Organic carbon detected in Bright Angel rock formation on Mars
by Planetary Science Institute

edited by Stephanie Baum, reviewed by Robert Egan
  Editors' notes
  The GIST

The Perseverance rover on Mars inspects a rock dubbed Cheyava Falls with 
the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for 
Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument on its robotic arm. Credit: 
NASA / JPL-Caltech
In September 2025, NASA announced that its Perseverance rover had 
discovered a potential biosignature, which is a substance or structure 
that might have a biological origin. A new paper, published in Science 
Advances, unambiguously confirms the detection of organic carbon, the 
building blocks of life, in the same two rocks from the Bright Angel 
formation, and describes in more detail exactly what we can say about 
that organic matter.

Ashley Murphy, a Planetary Science Institute postdoctoral researcher, 
co-led the paper with the SHERLOC instrument's Deputy Principal 
Investigator, Kyle Uckert. Using the Scanning Habitable Environments 
with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument 
on the robotic arm of the Perseverance rover, the team performed Raman 
spectroscopy on multiple rocks and collected a sample from one rock 
dubbed Cheyava Falls in Jezero crater's Bright Angel formation. Raman 
spectroscopy is a non-destructive way to detect and map minerals and 
organic compounds in rocks illuminated with laser light.

The team detected the presence of macromolecular carbon (MMC), which are 
large tangled networks of carbon atoms commonly found in rocks on Earth 
and meteorites. MMC can arise from biotic or abiotic sources.

Billions of years ago, a river channel carried water and sediment into 
Jezero crater. Fine-grained sediment settled to the bottom before 
eventually hardening into the mudstone rocks the team analyzed. MMC was 
detected in association with these fine-grained sediments as well as 
carbonate and sulfate minerals that formed later during aqueous 
alteration, suggesting possible timing of organic emplacement at two or 
more events across geologic history.

"While the specific formation mechanism of the MMC detected in the 
Bright Angel mudstones remains unknown, this is still one of the most 
exciting findings to date," Murphy said.

Organic carbon near the surface
Analysis also determined that the MMC was preserved only microns beneath 
the Martian surface, which is less than the thickness of a piece of 
paper. This marks the shallowest detection of MMC on Mars. It is notable 
to find complex organic molecules this close to the surface in a harsh 
environment like Mars where sunlight and other environmental factors are 
known to destroy organics.

"The Martian surface environment includes radiation and chemical 
oxidants that are destructive to organics, and terrestrial laboratory 
simulations have shown that the survival time of organics in 
Martian-like conditions—especially at or near the surface—depends on 
factors such as the type of organic molecule and the surrounding 
minerals," Murphy said. "The MMC detected in the Bright Angel mudstones 
is either resistant to degradation and/or has been sufficiently shielded 
by other minerals, such as clays, or iron-rich Martian soil."

Hints of wider ancient organics
Moreover, the sample was collected more than 2,000 miles away from 
organic detections by NASA's Curiosity rover in Gale crater.

"It is encouraging for Martian habitability," Murphy said. "This 
indicates that billions of years ago, organics may have been more than 
just locally present and may have been more widely available in ancient 
lakes and rivers on Mars."

Earth labs will decide
Neither Curiosity rover in Gale crater nor Perseverance rover in Jezero 
crater have the large and power-consuming equipment necessary to 
determine if Bright Angel contains fossilized microbial life. 
Perseverance was built with the goal of detecting potential 
biosignatures such as those found in the Cheyava Falls rock, making this 
a "resounding win for Mars science," Murphy said. However, more powerful 
tools in laboratories on Earth are needed to confirm if life or geology 
is behind this discovery.

If one day the team gets their hands on samples returned from this 
location on Mars, they hope to conduct mineral and organic analysis at 
higher resolution and with higher sensitivity instruments to better 
understand the origin of the MMC and what it can tell us about organics 
on Mars.

Murphy continues to work with the SHERLOC science team to explore the 
surface of Mars and use Mars analog and Raman spectroscopic studies to 
improve the interpretation of rover-derived data.

Publication details
Ashley E. Murphy et al, Spatially distributed complex organic matter 
detected in an ancient river valley in Jezero crater, Mars, Science 
Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adx0047

Journal information: Science Advances

Key concepts
diagenesismeteoritesdiagenesismineralogy
Provided by Planetary Science Institute

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Stephanie Baum
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