NASA rover finds organic carbon in Mars rocks, but sample remains inaccessible

Billions of years after water last flowed across the Martian surface, a NASA rover has found preserved organic carbon in ancient river rocks — the most compelling chemical argument yet that Mars once harbored microbial life. The discovery arrives with a quiet irony: the sample cannot be retrieved, leaving humanity's strongest evidence for life beyond Earth locked in stone, just out of reach. In this single finding, the search for extraterrestrial life and the oldest questions about our cosmic solitude converge anew.