Strange microorganisms
The Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest place on Earth. In many regions, this desert looks very similar to Mars. But even in the super arid areas, life still exists.
Using modern equipment to explore desert rocks, researchers have found DNA fragments from an attractive mixture of bacteria.
Notably, 9% of the genetic sections found belong to animals that science has not yet known, making them part of the dark microorganisms, according to research published this week in the journal Nature Communications.
These creatures are very strange and distinct bacteria, so much so that researchers cannot identify any known relatives.
In nearly half of cases, the database cannot clearly state what we have in hand, told The Washington Post.
Armando Azua-Bustos and his colleagues believe that the Atacama desert is a great experiment for the search for life on Mars.
But the same search with versions like the Hoa rover on the red planet could not detect any signs of microorganisms.
That means it would be difficult to find convincing evidence of Mars' current or past life on Earth without bringing samples back to Earth.
The study seems to strengthen the long-term Mars exploration strategy of NASA and its partner - the European Space Agency (ESA). NASA and ESA are carrying out a multi-phase mission called "Mars Sample return".
If all goes according to plan, Mars samples collected by NASA's Perseverance rover will be brought back to Earth around the beginning of the next decade for testing in laboratories.
But the new study also highlights the challenges scientists face when they want to know the biological history of Mars.
microbial life, especially if it has been extinct and fossil for a long time, can survive to or exceed the farthest limits that the small enough props to launch into space and land on another planet can be detected.
The Perseverance and Curiosity ships have found traces of organic molecules - the foundation of life - on the surface of the Mars constellation, although this is not evidence of biological origin.
Amy Williams, a planetary scientist at the University of Florida and a member of the Curiosity and Perseverance scientific team, said the new report from Azua-Bustos and her colleagues is important because it shows limited organic matter storage in Mars-like environments and will be difficult to detect even with modern laboratory equipment.
"This means that detecting organic matter through spacecraft, such as current and future Mars rover spacecraft, could be a bigger challenge, as organic matter that is easily broken down in the Mars surface environment has more radiation," said Mr. Williams.
The most effective way to find traces of life on Mars
However, research in Atacama shows that even a very arid environment will have sedimentary rock layers with a significant amount of biological rubble, Chris House, a geologist and cosmologist at the University of Pennsylvania, shared.
Scientist Azua-Bustos is a native resident of Atacama. He grew up in a Chilean town where it only rains about once a year. He said that there are places here where residents have never seen rain for many generations.
In the desert, there is an area called Red Stone, where rocks are red due to the presence of the mineral, hematit - this is also the mineral that gives Mars its red color.
More than 100 million years ago, in the Dinosaur era, the Red Stone was a riverbed, like the area on Mars in Jezero C study being explored by the Perseverance rover.
Scientist Azua-Bustos was surprised by the strange genetic material discovered in the study in Atacama.
Mr. Azua-Bustos commented that this could be a genetic material relic from extant and unprecedented life forms.
The Perseverance rover continues to explore the mouth of Jezero, dig up and store Mars soil samples. The plan is to bring another spaceship to the surface of the red planet.
Perseverance will then move Mars soil samples to a landing ship so that it can put the samples in orbit. There, the landing ship will encounter another vehicle - a European-made orbs - for the orbs to transport samples back to Earth.
The new study shows that this could be the most effective way - and perhaps the only - to find out if something has ever existed on Mars.
We know there are things to be discovered. But if your device is not designed to be able to detect those things, then we have a problem," said Azua-Bustos.
