Two minerals, known almost exclusively to be linked with microbial metabolism, have been found in a recent drill sample by the Perseverance rover.

They sparked a flurry of excitement, and NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy was quick to point out that gold-standard science will need to be performed on what he called “the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars.”

The hype comes entirely from the presence of two minerals: vivianite and greigite.

Per the Mineralogical Society of America, greigite is formed by magnetotactic bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria in lake soils or hydrothermal vents. It’s one of several materials scientists have theorized could have acted as a catalyst for the origin of life, in part because a certain iron-based unit of greigite is present in

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