A new study may have brought forward evidence of microbial life once present on Mars, though the researchers were keen to note that it does not prove such a revelation.

According to Space.com, authors of a study published in the journal Astrobiology examined images from the Curiosity Mars rover for their work. The photos come from Curiosity's trek as it passed the Gillespie Lake outcrop in Yellowknife Bay.

Since landing in the Gale Crater in Aug. 2012, Curiosity has been on a journey to reach Mount Sharp for its ultimate science destination. But the rover stopped several times along the way to drill and collect samples.

"All I can say is, here's my hypothesis and here's all the evidence that I have, although I do think that this evidence is a lot," study lead author Nora Noffke, a geobiologist at Old Dominion University in Virginia, told the Astrobiology magazine.

Many of Curiosity's findings to this point have suggested that Mars probably had lakes and similar bodies of water on the planet's surface, suggesting microbial life was possible. The new study would point to the unprecedented idea that Mars actually did host some sort of life.

"I've seen many papers that say 'Look, here's a pile of dirt on Mars, and here's a pile of dirt on Earth,'" Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and an associate editor of the journal Astrobiology, told the magazine. "And because they look the same, the same mechanism must have made each pile on the two planets.

"That's an easy argument to make, and it's typically not very convincing. However, Noffke's paper is the most carefully done analysis of the sort that I've seen, which is why it's the first of its kind published in Astrobiology."