Rock from Mars is a rare and precious resource here on Earth.

This not only demonstrates that life could actually exist in real Martian conditions, it provides astrobiologists with new biosignatures they could use to look for signs of ancient life in the crust of Mars.

"Black Beauty is among the rarest substances on Earth, it is a unique Martian breccia formed by various pieces of Martian crust (some of them are dated at 4.42 ± 0.07 billion years) and ejected millions [of] years ago from the Martian surface," said astrobiologist Tetyana Milojevic of the University of Vienna in Austria.

"We had to choose a pretty bold approach of crushing a few grams of precious Martian rock to recreate the possible look of Mars' earliest and simplest life form.".

If ancient life existed on Mars, then of all the life on Earth, it's most likely to resemble an extremophile.

Part of Perseverance's mission is to collect samples of Martian rock to be returned to Earth, hopefully within the next decade.