Does life exist outside of Earth? Humans have been asking this question for centuries. We might soon have an answer—thanks to a new
The car-sized vehicle is called Perseverance. It’s the fifth rover the U.S. space agency NASA has sent to the Red Planet since 1997. Perseverance contains high-tech instruments to collect rocks and soil and look for signs of past life.
NASA plans to eventually fly those samples to Earth to study. The research could reveal whether living organisms have ever existed on Mars—and whether they’re still there today. “We’ll have the opportunity to answer questions that we’ve been asking for a long time,” says Ken Farley, a lead scientist with the mission.