Mars is covered in “toxic cocktail” of chemicals
If until now there was hope of finding life on Mars, a new discovery brings new evidence for the naysayers. Scientists have discovered that the red planet is covered in “toxic cocktail” of chemicals that can wipe out living organisms.
This discovery means that, if any alien life has ever existed on Mars, it is likely to be buried underground. Therefore, any missions on Mars will have to dig deep to find the past or present life there.
The most hospitable environment may lie two or three metres beneath the surface where the soil and any organisms are shielded from intense radiation, explained researchers.
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“At those depths, it’s possible Martian life may survive,” said Jennifer Wadsworth, a postgraduate astrobiologist at Edinburgh University.
The research was driven by the discovery of oxidants known as perchlorates in the Martian soil some years back. Hints of perchlorates first showed up in tests performed by Nasa’s Viking lander missions 40 years ago, but were confirmed recently by the space agency’s Phoenix lander and Mars rover, Curiosity. In 2015, there were signs of perchlorates in what appeared to be streaks that seeped down crater walls in Mars.
In 2020, the European Space Agency plans to send its ExoMars rover to Mars on a mission to search for alien life. The rover is equipped with a drill that can bore two metres into the ground to retrieve soil samples in which microscopic Martians may be found.
Andrew Coates, a planetary scientist at UCL who leads the ExoMars panoramic camera team, said the work shows that the surface of Mars today is more hostile to life than thought. “This, combined with the solar and galactic particle radiation environment at the Martian surface, makes it all the more important to sample underneath the surface in the search for biomarkers,” he said.
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