Scientists say that if there is life on the Red Planet, it should follow the methane gas trail.
According to RCO News Agency, Ever since the discovery of methane on Mars, scientists have wondered whether the Red Planet might harbor life. Now researchers know where to look; deep into the surface of a vast plain on Mars.
The mystery of Martian methane has puzzled scientists for years. Mars rovers have observed seasonal fluctuations in methane, but orbiting satellites have found no significant traces of the molecule. This kind of diversity is an interesting, but unproven, hint that a certain type of life might exist on Mars.
Overall, however, Mars appears uninhabitable. Its surface temperature is usually several degrees below zero and it has almost no atmosphere, and deadly cosmic and solar rays constantly bombard the planet. So while ancient Mars once had oceans and a warmer climate, it’s unlikely that we’d find life on the surface of Mars now.
Instead we can look to Earth for potential habitats for Martian life. On our planet, life has expanded and diversified and filled everywhere. From the upper parts of the atmosphere to kilometers below the surface of the earth.
Life has also found many clever ways to extract energy from the environment. Although the most common method is photosynthesis, it is based on single-celled organisms that find energy wherever they can get it.
This includes methanogens, organisms that consume hydrogen and excrete methane as a waste product. Given the evidence of the regular appearance and disappearance of methane on the Red Planet, these organisms are prime candidates for the possible discovery of life on Mars.
In a paper recently submitted to the journal Astrobiology, scientists scoured Earth for potential counterparts to these organisms, looking for methanogens that thrive in conditions similar to those found on Mars.
The researchers narrowed their list of potential habitats into three categories. The first was microscopic fractures deep in the Earth’s crust, where the bedrock hosts small amounts of fluids, conditions that might also appear deep in the Martian crust.
The second was freshwater lakes buried under glaciers or polar ice caps that may exist under the southern ice cap of Mars, and the last was very salty, oxygen-depleted deep sea basins that resembled the seasonal appearance of water on the crater slopes of the Red Planet. was doing
Scientists have already found methanogens in all these environments on Earth. Now, in this new paper, researchers have mapped the range of temperatures, salinity levels, and pH values at locations scattered across the planet. Then they restricted the species to conditions similar to those on Mars where they would grow. Finally, they explored sites for the availability of molecular hydrogen, the primary food product of methanogens on Earth and potential life on Mars.
In particular, the researchers noted that the Methanosarcinaceae and Methanomicrobiaceae families are the most resilient, with their species living in a number of Martian-like conditions.
Next, the researchers looked at existing data about Mars itself. While information is scarce, especially about subsurface conditions, there is enough data to make a rough map of where liquid water might exist. Liquid water is essential to sustain life, even for resistant methanogens.
Given the evidence of subglacial lakes and wet crater slopes, researchers think the best chance of finding life is deep within the Martian surface.
In particular, Acidalia Planitia, a vast plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, has the best possible conditions, because the temperature there is warm enough to hold liquid water at a depth of 4.3 to 8.8 km.
The researchers think the temperature, salinity, pH and availability of hydrogen there have the best chance of matching the conditions under which methanogens grow on Earth. So it’s time to start drilling on Mars.
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