IOWA CITY, Iowa — A recent discovery that may indicate ancient life on Mars has a little-known connection to eastern Iowa and the University of Iowa. Dr. Valerie Payré works in the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability. But her focus is on the mouth of a river on Mars.
Her work with NASA and the Perseverance rover is revealing new possibilities of ancient life on the red planet. The signs are hidden in a rock sample, small dots called “leopard spots.”
“We see these features usually related to microbes living in rocks. We saw that and so we’re like, ‘Oh, maybe there’s something going on.’”…