A bold new theory proposes that a super-surviving microorganism could survive beneath the barren surface of Mars for hundreds of millions of years. The result ? That scientists should be on the lookout for when analyzing the latest data from the Red Planet.
In the study, researchers from Northwestern University posit that a form of bacteria found on Earth, known as Deinococcus radiodurans — which researchers previously called “Conan the Bacteria” for its uncanny ability to stay alive in some of the harshest conditions imaginable – could survive up to 280 million years under harsh radiation like that of Mars.
The new study builds on previous research by “Conan,” which found that this ancient bacterium could survive harsh ionizing radiation conditions for more than a million years.
In the study published this week in the Astrobiology journal, scientists tested several “extremophile” fungi and bacteria characterized by their ability to withstand ultra-harsh conditions that kill everything else, to see if they could handle those as ruthless as Mars, as Elton John described it as “cold as hell” and an article from the Northwest refers to “tough and unforgiving”.
While a few of the organisms were able to handle the gamma rays the scientists shot at them, it was D. radiodurans which was, according to their calculation, “particularly well adapted” to the extreme cold and dryness of Mars.
“In the new experiments, Conan the bacterium survived astronomical amounts of radiation in a freezing, arid environment,” the university paper read, “by far Bacillus spores, which can survive on Earth for millions of years.”
Building on previous research that found this hardcore bacterium could handle Mars-like radiation, the research team used spectrogram technology to measure the amount of manganese antioxidants in the organisms’ cells, which would match the quality (and duration) they can survive such intense radiation.
The researchers noted that Conan the bacterium wouldn’t survive very long when bathed in the ultraviolet light the Sun shines on the surface of Mars – but when buried just 10 centimeters away, it could survive 1.5 million. years; buried 10 meters below, this figure increases to 280 million years.
“If Martian life ever existed, even if viable life forms are not present on Mars now, their macromolecules and viruses would survive much, much longer,” said Michael Daly, professor of pathology at the Uniformed Services. University of the Health Sciences and planetary specialist. protection specialist, North West said in the release. “This reinforces the likelihood that, if life ever evolved on Mars, it would show up in future missions.”
Daly and the Northwestern team are now urging future Mars missions to bring back and study samples for testing. D. radiodurans – and also to make sure they do so safely for fear of extraterrestrial contamination on Earth.
“We concluded that terrestrial contamination on Mars would be essentially permanent – over periods of thousands of years,” said Brian Hoffman of Northwestern, co-lead author of the study. “This could complicate scientific efforts to search for Martian life. Similarly, if microbes were evolving on Mars, they might be able to survive to the present day. This means that returning samples from Mars could contaminate Earth. “
Long story short: it looks increasingly like Mars could be hospitable to certain types of life, at least in theory – and if it’s as robust as scientists think, we’ll have to be very careful with how we treat the samples we bring back to Earth.
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