ایا په مريخ کې ژوندي ميکروبونه شته؟ یخونه یې باید وکتل شي

During future Mars exploration missions, traces or remnants of ancient microbes may be found in the planet’s ice deposits.

Researchers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Penn State University recreated Martian conditions in the lab and found that fragments of protein-building molecules from E. coli bacteria, if present in Mars’ permafrost or ice deposits, could remain preserved for up to 50 million years, despite continuous exposure to intense cosmic radiation.

In the study, published in Astrobiology, scientists suggested that future missions searching for signs of life on Mars should focus on areas with pure ice or ice-rich permafrost rather than rocks, clay, or soil.

Christopher House, a co-author of the study and a geosciences professor at Penn State, said: “Fifty million years — the potential survival time of bacteria — is far longer than the age of many current surface ice deposits, which are often less than two million years old. This means that if any organic life exists within the ice, it would be preserved. If bacteria are near the Martian surface, future missions could find them.”

The research team, led by NASA Goddard space scientist Alexander Pavlov, who earned his Ph.D. in geosciences from Penn State in 2001, sealed E. coli bacteria in test tubes containing pure water ice. Other samples were mixed with water and materials similar to Martian soil, such as silicate rocks and clay.

A 2022 study by the same team found that amino acids preserved in a mixture of 10% water ice and 90% Martian soil degraded much faster than those in samples with only soil.

House noted, “There is a lot of ice on Mars, but most of it lies just below the surface. Future missions will need either a large drill or a powerful scoop to reach it, similar to the design and capabilities of the Phoenix mission.”