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Are We There Yet?

Finding signs of life on rocky planets and distant ocean worlds

By Orion Boone, Marian Summerall & Brendan Byrne
Published August 26, 2025 at 11:15 AM EDT
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This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Quela" drilling location in the "Murray Buttes" area on lower Mount Sharp. Key features on the skyline of this panorama are the dark mesa called "M12" to the left of the rover's mast and pale, upper Mount Sharp to the right of the mast. The top of M12 stands about 23 feet (7 meters) above the base of the sloping piles of rocks just behind Curiosity. The scene combines approximately 60 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover's robotic arm. Most of the component images were taken on Sept. 17, 2016, during the 1,463rd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. Two component images of the drill-hole area in front of the rover were taken on Sol 1466 (Sept. 20) to show the hole created by collecting a drilled sample at Quela on Sol 1464 (Sept. 18).
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Quela" drilling location in the "Murray Buttes" area on lower Mount Sharp. Key features on the skyline of this panorama are the dark mesa called "M12" to the left of the rover's mast and pale, upper Mount Sharp to the right of the mast. The top of M12 stands about 23 feet (7 meters) above the base of the sloping piles of rocks just behind Curiosity.

The scene combines approximately 60 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover's robotic arm. Most of the component images were taken on Sept. 17, 2016, during the 1,463rd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. Two component images of the drill-hole area in front of the rover were taken on Sol 1466 (Sept. 20) to show the hole created by collecting a drilled sample at Quela on Sol 1464 (Sept. 18).

NASA’s Perseverance rover is on the search for ancient signs of life on Mars. To do that, it’s examining and collecting rocks from the Martian surface.

One of those samples has what scientists describe as poppy seed or leopard print-like spots – which could be evidence of past organic life.

We’ll speak with University of Florida’s Amy Williams about the findings. Plus, a look back at the Curiosity Rover’s 13 years on Mars.

Then, scientists are looking at distant icy moons for signs of life.

On Saturn’s moon Enceladus and one of Jupiter’s moons Europa— microbiological life may be under the surface of icy oceans…

We’ll revisit a conversation with NASA’s Alexander Pavlov about his research on these distant worlds.

Are We There Yet?
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Marian Summerall
Marian is a multimedia journalist at Central Florida Public Media working as a reporter and producer for the 'Are We There Yet?' space podcast.
See stories by Marian Summerall
Brendan Byrne
Brendan Byrne is Central Florida Public Media's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing the organization's internship program. Byrne also hosts Central Florida Public Media's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration, and the weekly news roundup podcast "The Wrap."
See stories by Brendan Byrne
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