We may be one step closer to answering the most tantalizing cosmic question: Are we alone? Our loyal robotic explorers have been scouring Mars for evidence of life since the 1970s, when the Viking landers may have found and even destroyed it , according to one hypothesis. Since 2021, NASA's most recent red-planet rover, Perseverance , has been faithfully traversing the site of an ancient lake: Jezero Crater. Gouged out of the Martian landscape by a meteorite impact, Jezero held a vast body of