Our Perseverance Mars rover has obtained rock core samples with the most abundant organic molecules it's ever detected on the Red Planet. These molecules are not a definitive sign of life — organics can be made by many natural processes, including the interaction of rock and water — but one thing is for certain: Perseverance captured the samples it was sent to find.⁣ ⁣ After over a year on Mars, the rover arrived at a fan-shaped rocky outcrop, called “Wildcat Ridge,” where billions of years ago, a river once flowed. The rock cores obtained by Perseverance are each about the size of a piece of classroom chalk. The abundance of organics in the samples is the highest yet found by Perseverance. One of the rocks from Wildcat Ridge is especially high in a certain class of complex organic compounds known as aromatics. The rover's SHERLOC instrument found them all throughout the sample.⁣ ⁣ Organics don't necessarily mean life; they can be geological in origin. We will bring the samples back to...