Life in Mars Essay

For centuries people hit speculated just ab discover the possibility of life sentence on spoil owe to the orbiters proximity and connaturality to background. pricey researches for testify of life began in the nineteenth century, and continue via telescopic investigations and come tutelages. While early work focused on phenomenology and bordered on fantasy, modern scientific inquiry has emphasized the search for chemic biosignatures of life in the soil and rocks at the planets grow, and the search for biomarker gases in the halo.Fictional Martians pass been a recurring feature of popular frolic of the 20th and 21st centuries, and it remains an open question whether life soon exists on def sufferinger, or has existed at that place in the by historic. Early speculation deflower polar ice caps were observed as early as the mid-17th century, and they were low gear proven to grow and shrink alternately, in the summer and winter of each(prenominal) hemisphere, by Wi lliam Herschel in the latter part of the 18th century. By the mid-19th century, astronomers knew that vitiate had certain new(prenominal) similarities to Earth, for example that the length of a day on impair was more or less the same as a day on Earth.They too knew that its axial tilt was similar to Earths, which meant it experienced seasons conscionable as Earth does notwithstanding of nearly double the length owing to its much longer year. These observations led to the increase in speculation that the Acheronticer albedo features were weewee, and wiseer iodins were land. It was therefore natural to suppose that impair whitethorn be be by some melodic line of life. In 1854, William Whewell, a wildow of tether College, Cambridge, who popularized the word scientist, theorized that damage had seas, land and possibly life stages.Speculation about life on deflower exploded in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation by some observers of app arent Marti an canals which were however soon launch to be optical illusions. Despite this, in 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization. 2 This idea led British writer H. G. well to write The War of the Worlds in 1897, telling of an invasion by aliens from Mars who were fleeing the planets desiccation.Spectroscopic analysis of Mars atmosphere began in earnest in 1894, when U. S. astronomer William Wallace Campbell envisioned that neither pissing nor oxygen were stage in the Martian atmosphere. 3 By 1909 better telescopes and the best perihelic opposition of Mars since 1877 conclusively put an end to the canal theory. Missions labourer 4 manual laborer 4 see performed the start-off successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian scrape up in 1965. The photographs showed an arid Mars without rivers, oceans, or two signs of life.Further, it revealed that the surface (at least the parts that it photographed) was covered in craters, indicating a pretermit of plate tectonics and weathering of every kind for the last 4 one million million million years. The probe also engraft that Mars has no global magnetized field that would protect the planet from potentially life-threatening cosmic rays. The probe was able to calculate the atmospheric pressure on the planet to be about 0. 6 kPa (compared to Earths 101. 3 kPa), meaning that facile urine could non exist on the planets surface. 3 later Mariner 4, the search for life on Mars changed to a search for bacteria-like living organisms rather than for multicellular organisms, as the environment was clearly in addition harsh for these. Viking orbiters Liquid piddle supply is necessary for known life and metabolism, so if water was pass on Mars, the chances of it having supported life may take over been determinant. The Viking orbiters install prove of contingent river valleys in some areas, erosion and, in the grey hemisphere, branched streams. Viking experimentsThe primary mission of the Viking probes of the mid-1970s was to carry out experiments intentional to detect microorganisms in Martian soil because the favorable conditions for the evolution of multicellular organisms ceased some quartet billion years ago on Mars. The tests were suppose to way for microbial life similar to that found on Earth. Of the 4 experiments, caterd the labelled emancipate (LR) experiment returned a haughty dissolver, display increased 14CO2 production on first exposure of soil to water and nutrients.All scientists agree on two points from the Viking missions that radiolabeled 14CO2 was evolved in the Labeled Release experiment, and that the GC-MS detected no positive molecules. However, there are vastly unlike interpretations of what those results imply. The image taken by Viking probes resembling a human face caused m some(prenominal) to speculate that it was the work of an extra workaday civilization. One of the designers of the Labeled Release experiment, sarin Levin, believes his results are a definitive diagnostic for life on Mars.However, this result is disputed by many scientists, who argue that superoxidant chemicals in the soil could let adoptd this effect without life being present. An almost general consensus discarded the Labeled Release info as evidence of life, because the gas chromatograph & mass spectrometer, knowing to identify natural organic matter, did not detect organic molecules. The results of the Viking mission concerning life are considered by the general expert community, at best, as inconclusive.In 2007, during a Seminar of the Geophysical lab of the Carnegie Institution (Washington, D. C. , USA), gigabit Levins investigation was assessed once to a greater extent. Levin still maintains that his neckclothal data were correct, as the positive and negative control ex periments were in order. Moreover, Levins team, on 12 April 2012, account a statistical speculation, based on aged data reinterpreted mathematically through complexity analysis of the Labeled Release experiments, that may fire evidence of extant microbial life on Mars. Critics counter that the system has not yet been proven effective for differentiating between biological and non-biological operationes on Earth so it is premature to draw any conclusions.Ronald Paepe, an edaphologist (soil scientist), communicated to the European Geosciences summation Congress that the discovery of the recent detective work of silicate minerals on Mars may read pedogenesis, or soil development processes, extended over the sinless surface of Mars. Paepes interpretation views most of Mars surface as active soil, colored red by eons of widespread wearing by water, vegetation and microbial operation.A research team from the National autonomous University of Mexico headed by Rafael Navarro-Gonz alez, close upd that the equipment (TV-GC-MS) used by the Viking program to search for organic molecules, may not be sensitive enough to detect low takes of organics. Because of the simplicity of precedent handling, TVGCMS is still considered the measuring stick method for organic detection on future Mars missions, so Navarro-Gonzalez adverts that the design of future organic instruments for Mars should include other methods of detection.Gillevinia straata The say for life on Mars, in the form of Gillevinia straata, is based on old data reinterpreted as sufficient evidence of life, mainly by professors Gilbert Levin, Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez and Ronalds Paepe. The evidence supporting the creation of Gillevinia straata microorganisms relies on the data collected by the two Mars Viking landers that searched for biosignatures of life, just the analytical results were, officially, inconclusive.In 2006, Mario Crocco, a neurobiologist at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital Borda in Bueno s Aires, Argentina, proposed the creation of a new nomenclatural outrank that classified the Viking landers results as metabolic and therefore belonging to a form of life. Crocco proposed to create new biological ranking categories (taxa), in the new nation system of life, in order to be able to accommodate the genus of Martian microorganisms. Crocco proposed the following taxonomical inlet* Organic life system Solaria * Biosphere Marciana state Jakobia (named after neurobiologist Christfried Jakob) * Genus et species Gillevinia straata As a result, the hypothetical Gillevinia straata would not be a bacterium (which rather is a terrestrial taxon), but a phallus of the kingdom Jakobia in the biosphere Marciana of the Solaria system. The intended effect of the new nomenclature was to vacate the burden of proof concerning the life issue, but the taxonomy proposed by Crocco has not been veritable by the scientific community and is considered a single nomen nudum. Further, no Mars mission has found traces of biomolecules.Phoenix lander, 2008 The Phoenix mission landed a robotic spacecraft in the polar region of Mars on may 25, 2008 and it operated until November 10, 2008. One of the missions two primary objectives was to search for a habitable zone in the Martian regolith where microbial life could exist, the other main goal being to development the geological history of water on Mars. The lander has a 2. 5 meter robotic arm that was capable of shot shallow trenches in the regolith. There was an electrochemistry experiment which analysed the ions in the regolith and the amount and symbol of antioxidants on Mars.The Viking program data indicate that oxidants on Mars may vary with latitude, noting that Viking 2 saw hardly a(prenominal)er oxidants than Viking 1 in its more(prenominal) northerly position. Phoenix landed further north still. Phoenixs preliminary data revealed that Mars soil deports perchlorate, and thus may not be as life-friendly as thoug ht earlier. The pH and salinity level were viewed as benign from the standpoint of biology. The analysers also indicated the presence of bound water and CO2. Mars Science Laboratory Main articles Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity bird of passageThe Mars Science Laboratory mission is a NASA spacecraft launched on November 26, 2011 that deployed the Curiosity rover, a nuclear-powered robot bearing instruments knowing to look for past or present conditions relevant to biological activity (planetary habitability). The Curiosity rover landed on Mars on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater, near Aeolis Mons (a. k. a. Mount Sharp), on August 6, 2012. Future missions * ExoMars is a European-led multi-spacecraft programme trustworthyly on a lower floor development by the European station mode (ESA) and NASA for launch in 2016 and 2018.Its primary scientific mission get out be to search for possible biosignatures on Mars, past or present. devil rovers with a 2 m core drill each get out be used to attempt various depths beneath the surface where unruffled water may be found and where microorganisms might survive cosmic beam of light. * Mars Sample Return Mission The best life detection experiment proposed is the examination on Earth of a soil sample from Mars. However, the difficulty of providing and maintaining life support over the months of transit from Mars to Earth remains to be solved. Providing for still unknown environmental and nutritional requirements is daunting.Should at rest(predicate) organisms be found in a sample, it would be difficult to conclude that those organisms were alive when obtained. Meteorites NASA maintains a catalog of 34 Mars meteorites. These assets are super valuable since they are the only physical samples available of Mars. Studies conducted by NASAs Johnson position Center show that at least three of the meteorites contain potential evidence of past life on Mars, in the form of microscopic structures resembling fossilized bac teria (so-called biomorphs). Although the scientific evidence collected is reliable, its interpretation varies.To date, none of the original lines of scientific evidence for the hypothesis that the biomorphs are of exobiological origin (the so-called biogenic hypothesis) have been either discredited or positively ascribed to non-biological explanations. Over the past few decades, seven criteria have been established for the intelligence of past life within terrestrial geologic samples. Those criteria are 1. Is the geologic context of the sample compatible with past life? 2. Is the age of the sample and its stratigraphic location compatible with possible life? 3. Does the sample contain evidence of cellular morphology and colonies?4.Is there any evidence of biominerals showing chemical or mineral disequilibria? 5. Is there any evidence of stable isotope patterns alone(p) to biology? 6. atomic number 18 there any organic biomarkers present? 7. Are the features indigenous to the sam ple? For general acceptance of past life in a geologic sample, essentially most or all of these criteria mustiness be met. All seven criteria have not yet been met for any of the Martian samples, but continued investigations are in proficiency. As of 2010, reexaminations of the biomorphs found in the three Martian meteorites are underway with more forward-looking analytical instruments than previously available.The scientists conducting the study at Johnson Space Center believed that beforehand the end of the year they would find in the meteorites definitive evidence for past life on Mars. ALH84001 meteorite The ALH84001 meteorite was found in December 1984 in Antarctica, by members of the ANSMET project the meteorite weighs 1. 93 kilograms (4. 3 lb). The sample was ejected from Mars about 17 million years ago and spent 11,000 years in or on the Antarctic ice sheets. Composition analysis by NASA revealed a kind of magnetite that on Earth, is only found in crosstie with certain microorganisms.Then, in August 2002, another NASA team led by Thomas-Keptra published a study indicating that 25% of the magnetite in ALH 84001 occurs as small, uniform-sized crystals that, on Earth, is associated only with biologic activity, and that the remainder of the material appears to be common inorganic magnetite. The extraction technique did not permit determination as to whether the possibly biological magnetite was organized into chains as would be expected. The meteorite displays indication of relatively low temperature secondary mineralization by water and shows evidence of preterrestrial aqueous revision.Evidence of polycyclic aromatic hydro cytosines (PAHs) have been identified with the levels increasing out from the surface. Some structures resembling the mineralized casts of terrestrial bacteria and their appendages (fibrils) or by-products (extracellular polymeric substances) occur in the rims of deoxycytidine monophosphateate globules and preterrestrial aqueou s alteration regions. The size and shape of the objects is consistent with mortal fossilized nanobacteria, but the existence of nanobacteria itself is controversial.In November 2009, NASA scientists said that a recent, more detailed analysis showed that the meteorite contains strong evidence that life may have existed on antique Mars. Nakhla Meteorite The Nakhla meteorite fell on Earth on June 28, 1911 on the locality of Nakhla, Alexandria, Egypt. In 1998, a team from NASAs Johnson Space Center obtained a small sample for analysis. Researchers found preterrestrial aqueous alteration phases and objects of the size and shape consistent with Earthly fossilized nanobacteria, but the existence of nanobacteria itself is controversial.Analysis with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) studied its high molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in 2000, and NASA scientists reason out that as much as 75% of the organic matter in Nakhla may not be recent terrestrial con tamination. This caused additional interest in this meteorite, so in 2006, NASA managed to obtain an additional and larger sample from the London inherent History Museum. On this second sample, a large dendritic carbon content was observed. When the results and evidence were published on 2006, some independent researchers claimed that the carbon deposits are of biologic origin.However, it was remarked that since carbon is the fourth most abundant component part in the Universe, finding it in curious patterns is not indicative or suggestive of biological origin. Shergotty meteorite The Shergotty meteorite, a 4 kg Martian meteorite, fell on Earth on Shergotty, India on August 25, 1865 and was retrieved by witnesses almost immediately. 45 This meteorite is relatively young, cipher to have been formed on Mars only 165 million years ago from volcanic origin. It is composed in the main of pyroxene and thought to have undergone preterrestrial aqueous alteration for several centuries.Ce rtain features in its inner(a) suggest to be remnants of biofilm and their associated microbial communities. 33 Work is in progress on searching for magnetites within alteration phases. Liquid water No Mars probe since Viking has tested the Martian regolith specifically for metabolism which is the ultimate sign of current life. NASAs recent missions have focused on another question whether Mars held lakes or oceans of swimming water on its surface in the ancient past. Scientists have found hematite, a mineral that forms in the presence of water.Thus, the mission of the Mars Exploration Rovers of 2004 was not to look for present or past life, but for evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars in the planets ancient past. Liquid water, necessary for Earth life and for metabolism as largely conducted by species on Earth, cannot exist on the surface of Mars under its present low atmospheric pressure and temperature, except at the lowest shaded elevations for short periods and l iquid water does not appear at the surface itself. In June 2000, evidence for water currently under the surface of Mars was ascertained in the form of flood-like gullies.Deep subsurface water deposits near the planets liquid core might form a present-day habitat for life. However, in March 2006, astronomers announced the discovery of similar gullies on the Moon, which is believed never to have had liquid water on its surface. The astronomers suggest that the gullies could be the result of micrometeorite impacts. In March 2004, NASA announced that its rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that Mars was, in the ancient past, a wet planet. This had raised hopes that evidence of past life might be found on the planet today.ESA confirmed that the Mars Express orbiter had directly detected huge reserves of water ice at Mars south pole in January 2004. On July 28, 2005, ESA announced that they had put down photographic evidence of surface water ice near Mars North pole. In December 20 06, NASA showed images taken by the Mars world(prenominal) Surveyor that suggested that water occasionally flows on the surface of Mars. The images did not actually show flowing water. Rather, they showed changes in craters and sediment deposits, providing the strongest evidence yet that water oursed through them as recently as several years ago, and is perhaps doing so even now. Some researchers were skeptical that liquid water was responsible for the surface feature changes seen by the spacecraft. They said other materials such as smoothen or dust can flow like a liquid and produce similar results.Recent analysis of Martian sandstones, using data obtained from orbital spectrometry, suggests that the waters that previously existed on the surface of Mars would have had too high a salinity to support most Earth-like life. Tosca et al. found that the Martian water in the locations they studied all had water activity, aw ? . 78 to 0. 86a level fatal to most Terrestrial life. Haloarc haea, however, are able to live in hypersaline solutions, up to the saturation point. The Phoenix Mars lander from NASA, which landed in the Mars Arctic plain in may 2008, confirmed the presence of frozen water near the surface. This was confirmed when bright material, exposed by the digging arm of the lander, was found to have volatilised and disappeared in 3 to 4 days. This has been attributed to sub-surface ice, exposed by the digging and sublimate on exposure to the atmosphere. MethaneTrace amounts of methane in the atmosphere of Mars were discovered in 2003 and verified in 2004. As methane is an unstable gas, its presence indicates that there must be an active source on the planet in order to keep such levels in the atmosphere. It is estimated that Mars must produce 270 ton/year of methane, but asteroid impacts account for only 0. 8% of the total methane production. Although geologic sources of methane such as serpentinization are possible, the lack of current volcanism, hyd rothermal activity or hot floater are not favorable for geologic methane.It has been suggested that the methane was produced by chemical reactions in meteorites, driven by the intense heat during entry through the atmosphere. Although research published in December 2009 ruled out this possibility, research published in 2012 suggest that a source may be organic compounds on meteorites that are converted to methane by ultraviolet illumination radiation. The existence of life in the form of microorganisms such as methanogens is among possible, but as yet unproven sources.If microscopic Martian life is producing the methane, it potential resides far below the surface, where it is still warm enough for liquid water to exist. Since the 2003 discovery of methane in the atmosphere, some scientists have been designing models and in vitro experiments scrutiny growth of methanogenic bacteria on simulated Martian soil, where all four methanogen strains tested produced substantial levels of met hane, even in the presence of 1. 0wt% perchlorate salt. The results account indicate that the perchlorates discovered by the Phoenix Lander would not rule out the possible presence of methanogens on Mars.A team led by Levin suggested that both phenomenamethane production and degradationcould be accounted for by an ecology of methane-producing and methane-consuming microorganisms. In June 2012, scientists reported that measuring the ratio of hydrogen and methane levels on Mars may suffice determine the likelihood of life on Mars. According to the scientists, low H2/CH4 ratios (less than nearly 40) indicate that life is likely present and active. Other scientists have recently reported methods of detecting hydrogen and methane in extraterrestrial atmospheres. FormaldehydeIn February 2005, it was announced that the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on the European Space Agencys Mars Express Orbiter, detected traces of formaldehyde in the atmosphere of Mars. Vittorio Formisano, the director of the PFS, has speculated that the formaldehyde could be the byproduct of the oxidation of methane, and according to him, would provide evidence that Mars is either extremely geologically active, or harbouring colonies of microbial life. NASA scientists consider the preliminary findings are well worth a follow-up, but have also rejected the claims of life. SilicaIn May 2007, the whole step rover disturbed a patch of ground with its inoperative wheel, bring out an area extremely rich in silica (90%). The feature is mindful of the effect of hot spring water or steam climax into contact with volcanic rocks. Scientists consider this as evidence of a past environment that may have been favorable for microbial life, and theorize that one possible origin for the silica may have been produced by the interaction of soil with acid vapors produced by volcanic activity in the presence of water. Another possible origin could have been from water in a hot spring environment.Base d on Earth analogs, hydrothermal systems on Mars would be highly attractive for their potential for preserving organic and inorganic biosignatures. For example, iron oxidizing bacteria are abundant in marine and terrestrial hydrothermal systems, where they often display distinctive cell morphologies and are commonly crusty by minerals, especially bacteriogenic iron oxides and silica. Microfossils of iron oxidizing bacteria have been found in ancient Si-Fe deposits and iron oxidation may be an ancient and widespread metabolic pathway. 83 If possible, future rover missions will target dead hydrothermal vent systems on Mars. overflows on Mars The seasonal frosting and defrosting of the southern ice cap results in the formation of spider-like radial channels work on 1 meter thick ice by sun absolved. Then, sublimated CO2 and probably water increase pressure in their interior producing geyser-like eruptions of cold fluids often mixed with dark basaltic sand or mud. This process is ra pid, observed happening in the space of a few days, weeks or months, a growth rate rather unusual in geology especially for Mars.A team of Hungarian scientists proposes that the geysers most visible features, dark dune spots and spider channels, may be colonies of photosynthetic Martian microorganisms, which over-winter beneath the ice cap, and as the sunlight returns to the pole during early spring, light penetrates the ice, the microorganisms photosynthesize and heat their immediate surroundings. A pocket of liquid water, which would normally thaw instantly in the thin Martian atmosphere, is trapped around them by the overlying ice.As this ice stage thins, the microorganisms show through grey. When the layer has completely melted, the microorganisms rapidly desiccate and turn black, surrounded by a grey aureole. The Hungarian scientists believe that even a complex sublimation process is insufficient to explain the formation and evolution of the dark dune spots in space and time . Since their discovery, fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke promoted these formations as deserving of study from an astrobiological perspective.A multinational European team suggests that if liquid water is present in the spiders channels during their annual defrost cycle, they might provide a niche where certain microscopic life forms could have retreated and fit while sheltered from solar radiation. A British team also considers the possibility that organic matter, microbes, or even simple plants might co-exist with these inorganic formations, especially if the mechanism includes liquid water and a geothermal push source. However, they also remark that the majority of geological structures may be accounted for without invoking any organic life on Mars hypothesis.It has been proposed to develop the Mars Geyser Hopper lander to study the geysers up close. Cosmic radiation In 1965, the Mariner 4 probe discovered that Mars had no global magnetized field that would protect the planet f rom potentially life-threatening cosmic radiation and solar radiation observations made in the late 1990s by the Mars Global Surveyor confirmed this discovery. Scientists speculate that the lack of magnetic protect helped the solar wind blow away much of Marss atmosphere over the course of several billion years.After represent cosmic radiation levels at various depths on Mars, researchers have concluded that any life within the first several meters of the planets surface would be killed by lethal doses of cosmic radiation. In 2007, it was calculated that DNA and RNA damage by cosmic radiation would pay off life on Mars to depths greater than 7. 5 metres below the planets surface. Therefore, the best potential locations for discovering life on Mars may be at subsurface environments that have not been studied yet.