Possible signs of ancient Martian life: What did NASA really discover?

Karl Hille, The Baltimore Sun on Feb 11, 2026

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Organic compounds found in Mars rocks are too abundant to rule out the possibility of Martian life in the red planet’s history, NASA scientists say.

In March of 2025, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered oily chemicals on Mars. These chemicals, called decane, undecane, and dodecane, are types of long molecules made of carbon and hydrogen. Scientists first considered that they might come from rocks or meteorites. But after studying the data, NASA scientists said those sources don’t explain where the chemicals came from, which has left the door open to possible Martian life that may have existed a long-time ago.

“Scientists combined lab radiation experiments, mathematical modeling and Curiosity data to ‘rewind the clock’ about 80 million years — the length of time the rock would have been exposed on the Martian surface,” NASA planetary science writer Lonnie Schekhtman wrote on the science.NASA.gov website. “This allowed them to estimate how much organic material would have been present before being destroyed by long-term exposure to cosmic radiation: far more than typical nonbiological processes could produce.”

The scientists, based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, published their work on Feb. 4 in the journal Astrobiology.

The paper found that the compounds could be fragments of fatty acids preserved in the ancient mudstone of Gale Crater. On Earth, fatty acids are produced mostly by living organisms.

NASA scientists typically spend more time arguing against claims of extraterrestrial life, including a 2008 non-announcement following blogosphere rumors of a major discovery by the Phoenix Mars Lander. The website SpaceRef.com reported on a “high-level briefing” regarding potential life on Mars, which prompted widespread speculation. NASA held a press conference to sweep away rumors.

In November, NASA also spent a significant portion of a science press conference about interstellar traveler, comet 3IAtlas, explaining that it was a comet, not an alien spacecraft.

And in 1996, astrobiologist David McKay published a paper suggesting microscopic formations on a meteorite from Mars could have biological origins. It was later determined not to be a sign of life.

The NASA researchers in this new paper cautioned that more study is needed to understand how quickly these molecules might breakdown in more appropriate, Mars-like conditions before drawing any conclusions on whether Martians walked on the red planet millions of years ago.

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