Mars' Environment is More Hostile Than Originally Believed

We’ve been sending rovers to Mars for years just to find out whether or not the red planet has the means to support life, and soon, the Mars 2020 rover will continue where older rover missions have left off.

Mars has a lot of unexplained secrets. Now new research suggests the probability of finding life there is low.

Image Credit: Pixabay

While we haven’t found any traces of life on Mars just yet, scientists are excited to learn about any possible presence of extraterrestrial bacteria, or perhaps even something else more advanced that we’ve never seen before.

While it might seem feasible to say the least, Scottish researchers have just published a study in the journal Scientific Reports that elaborates on how the Martian environment could be harsher against organic life than we originally realized, which has negative implications.

The study took a closer look at the presence of perchlorates that are known to exist on the red planet and studied the effects of ultraviolet radiation on them. They found that the perchlorates underwent a chemical reaction when exposed to ultraviolet light that was detrimental to organic matter, namely a specific bacterial test subject known as Bacillus subtilis.

The presence of iron oxides and hydrogen peroxide on Mars' dry and lifeless surface may also exacerbate the cell destruction process in organic matter, which seems to add another nail to the coffin.

While the study did unfortunately only focus on just one bacteria species, and no others, it illustrated just how potentially unforgiving the Martian environment could be towards organic life forms of all kinds. This doesn’t mean that some other species couldn’t survive, on the other hand.

“Life can survive very extreme environments,” says lead study author Jennifer Wadsworth “The bacterial model we tested wasn’t an extremophile so it’s not out of the question that hardier life forms would find a way to survive.”

Since Mars lacks an ozone layer, ultraviolet radiation easily reaches the surface of the planet, which means ground-based perchlorates are exposed to ultraviolet rays and more whenever the Sun’s or cosmically-sourced radiation kisses Mars.

Keep in mind, however, that while the surface of Mars may be inhabitable to most species, that’s not to say that subsurface life isn’t possible. Underground, the ultraviolet radiation doesn’t have as much impact, and this is also supposedly where all the traces of running water on Mars has went over time.

“Although the surface of Mars may be uninhabitable, there’s a whole potential subsurface habitat to be explored,” Wadsworth continued.

“If that’s the case we may have to dig at least a few meters into the ground to ensure the levels of radiation would be relatively low. At those depths, it’s possible Martian life may survive.”

Any future human visitors that might find their way to Mars in coming years will be forced to live inside of habitation modules that keep visitors protected from radiation and sustain a constant supply of breathable air, drinkable water, and edible food.

Space suits could also serve as viable protection against the Martian elements during missions where leaving the habitation module is required.

The study is only a precursor for future studies to determine whether finding native life forms on Mars is plausible. It’s not intended to persuade NASA and SpaceX against following their goals of putting mankind on Mars. This will still probably happen once technology catches up with our imaginations.

This is for sure going to be a huge challenge for mankind, both in searching for existing life forms and sending astronauts to Mars to study its unique qualities withour own eyes.

Source: Popular science