Is there life history on Mars ? It ’s easily one of the greatest questions in science , and although there ’s no authoritative validation just yet , a new study has evidence that suggests it ’s easy possible , despite the comparative inhospitability of the Red Planet .
Our flushed neighbour used to be cover in loose - flowing water andabundant O , but this has all but disappeared now . On our own home planet , where you have piss – whether it isunbelievably hot and acidicor whether it ’s locked up beneath kilometers ofancient ice – you have life in microbic phase .
Mars still contains bothsurface and subterraneous internal-combustion engine , so surely there are some extremophile organisms scamper about in its hydrated soils ? Well , perhaps .
Just beneath the aerofoil , these hypothetical germ would be shielded from the high levels of radiation that permeate through the planet ’s thin atmosphere . Unfortunately , there ’s a likely problem .
Theatmospheric pressureon Mars is so low-toned – ranging from one - hundredth to one - one-thousandth of that found on Earth ’s open – that the urine will easily boil off , disregardless of the extremely small temperature of the environment there . stewing water , as you may conceive of , is not conducive to life , even for extremophiles , whose DNA could be irreparably damage .
Enter , the methanogens . These little guys and girls belong to the arena ofarchaea , exceedingly simple but resilient lifeforms often institute in extreme environs . Methanogens , as the name implies , change hydrogen into methane without using atomic number 8 , to gain energy in a appendage roll in the hay as anaerobiotic respiration .
They ’re everywhere from wetland to inside the bowel of mammals , including you . In fact , they ’re part of the rationality you – yes , you – may be so flatulent . They could also exist in pockets of water on Mars , but could they make it the boiling process that is so plebeian there ?
The Twin Peaks , as captured by the Mars Pathfinder . NASA / Caltech - JPL
A team at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville grab four species of methanogen and placed them in simulated Martian watery , soil - disperse environments , putting them under the passing low pressures that you ’d expect to find on the real peck . They also made sure there was plenty of hydrogen gas in the water and almost no atomic number 8 whatsoever .
Remarkably , after up to 21 day at pressures down to one six - thousandth of those detect on Earth , all four species survived .
“ These experimentation show that for some species , low pressure may not really have any effect on the survival of the organism , ” lead author Rebecca Mickol , an astrobiologist at the University of Arkansas , toldAstrobiology Magazine .
write in the journalOrigins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres , the team note that although they need to do more tests involving glacial temperatures , their experimentation show that life on Mars is , indeed , a possibility .
