If life still exists on Mars, it should be microscopic. However, it is almost impossible for even bacteria to exist there. Scientists suggest looking for them in the crisis lurking beneath the surface of the planet’s temperate latitudes.
Problem of Martian life
Scientists continue to search for life on Mars. Recently, a large group of astronomers from a range of scientific institutions presented a paper on this issue at a conference. According to it, it is worth paying attention to what lurks beneath the surface of the planet’s temperate zones.
In order for Earth-like life to exist, the celestial body should have conditions that can be described as “warm and humid” as simplistically as possible. And ancient Mars had these conditions. The Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are looking for traces of bacteria in sediments that were once warm mud.
Whether they found traces of ancient Martian bacteria or not will be known in the next decade, when the collected samples will be brought to Earth and studied in the laboratory. However, it will be a dead life anyway. And now we need to think of where on Mars there is a chance of encountering living microorganisms.
Searching in the ice
The scientists’ new idea relies on the simple assumption that we should look where there is water and sunlight. It would be better, of course, for the water to be liquid, but on Mars, with its low atmospheric pressure, only oversalted solutions can be in that state.
However, on Earth, microorganisms can survive even in an Antarctic crisis. It has been studied by scientists and they have concluded that the key factor here is dust pollution. It determines transparency, which affects the ability for photosynthesis to take place. Temperatures below -18°C also stop all biological processes.
All of this is extremely important to the search for life on Mars. The first place where it definitely has ice on it is the polar caps. However, it is too cold there to support life even for the microorganisms that survive in Antarctica.
Fortunately, scientists now know that there are ice deposits in the temperate zones of the red planet as well. Of course, the backgrounds cannot be on the surface in direct sunlight. Over millions of years, such ice would have to directly turn to vapor and then disperse into interplanetary space.
But just beneath the thin layer of soil, it may well still be preserved. And looking for life there is a really good idea. After all, on Mars, there is no ozone layer that protects life on Earth. Therefore, ultraviolet radiation there, despite the greater distance from the Sun, is 30% more intense than on Earth.
Therefore, a layer of soil could provide the bacteria in crisis with additional protection. However, it should not be too thick either, as visible light should still be able to pass through it. Whether such conditions on Mars actually exist is not known. But in the future, scientists want to get this data as well.
According to phys.org
