Did ancient microbes destroy the possibility of life on Mars?

October 23, 2022

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Did ancient microbes destroy the possibility of life on Mars? NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Mars surface with Mont Mercou. Elements of this image furnished by NASA Mars is the closest and closest neighbor to Earth in the solar system, as it is a rocky planet 1.5 times farther from the sun than the Earth is from the sun. It has the same degree of inclination of the axis and the same seasons of the year as on Earth, and scientists believe that there was water on its surface 3.8 billion years ago, which supports the idea of life on its surface at some time, a theory that scientists traded, even theoretically. Microbial life on Mars A study - based on climate modeling - found that ancient microbes caused climate change on Mars and made it less habitable. The researchers published the results of this study in the journal Nature Astronomy, on October 10. The study was led by astrobiologist Boris Souteri of the Biology Department of the Ecole Normale Supérieure Biologie de l'Ecole Supérieure (IBENS) in Paris. The results indicate that during the Nocian period, the Martian crust may have provided a favorable environment for microbial life, and the porous soil could have left an area protected from ultraviolet and cosmic radiation. The Nocian period is a geological system and early time period on Mars, characterized by high rates of meteorites, asteroids and impacts, and the potential for abundant surface waters from 4100 to 3700 million years ago. The temperature below the surface, and the pervasiveness of the dense atmosphere, facilitated the existence of simple microbes that consumed hydrogen and carbon dioxide as sources of energy and carbon and produced methane as waste. The study concluded that around the same time - when primitive life was taking hold in the oceans of the primitive Earth - the exact opposite happened on Mars. And space.com states - in a report published on October 10 - that Soteri and his team conducted a complex computer modeling study that simulates the interaction of what we know about the ancient atmosphere and lithosphere of Mars, with hydrogen-consuming microbes similar to those that were present on Mars. ancient land. These researchers found that at a time when the presence of methane produced by these microbes on Earth was gradually warming the planet, Mars began to cool instead, pushing the microbes into deeper layers of the planet's crust to survive. Slow down the greenhouse effect “At that time, Mars was relatively humid and warm, between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius, and had liquid water in the form of rivers, lakes and possibly oceans on its surface, but its atmosphere was completely different from that of the Earth,” Suteri told Space.com. "It was dense, but richer in carbon dioxide and hydrogen, both of which were powerful heating gases," he added. And when primitive microbes began to devour hydrogen and produce methane - which acts on Earth as a powerful greenhouse gas - this slowed the global warming effect, causing a gradual cooling of the ancient planet, and thus became inhospitable, especially as it is farther from the sun than the Earth is from it. It is naturally cooler, and in dire need of greenhouse gases to maintain a temperature suitable for life. "On ancient Mars, hydrogen was a very powerful heating gas because of something we call the impact absorption effect where carbon dioxide and hydrogen molecules interact with each other," Souteri said. "We don't see that on Earth because our planet's atmosphere isn't as rich in carbon dioxide as Mars was in the past. So the microbes basically replaced a more potent greenhouse gas (hydrogen) with a less potent warming gas (methane), which eventually had a cooling effect." ". Escape to the depths and self-destruction of life The cold that caused more of the planet's water to freeze into ice (-60°C) pushed the microbes deeper below the planet's surface where they could find warmth. Modeling revealed that initially the microbes may have lived comfortably just below the sandy surface of Mars, but that they moved to deeper depths of more than a kilometer below the surface of the Martian crust, only a few hundred million years after the cooling event. And a report - published by Live Science - states that researchers want to know if any of these ancient microbes have survived, in an attempt to find evidence for their theory. Traces of methane on Mars' scattered atmosphere have previously been detected by satellites, as well as "strange burps" spotted by NASA's Curiosity rover, which may provide evidence that microbes are still present. The report also notes the scientists' belief that their findings suggest that life may not be self-sufficient and instinctively self-sufficient in every favorable environment in which it emerges, and could easily obliterate itself by accidentally destroying the very foundations of its existence. "The components of life are everywhere in the universe," says Souteri. "But the inability of this life to maintain habitable conditions on the planet's surface is causing it to become extinct very quickly. Our experiment takes it (life) a step further because it shows that it is very primitive." "Because the Martian atmosphere has mostly disappeared. these microbes would have to switch to another source of energy, and we can imagine that some geological processes on Mars today could provide the same kind of active substrate, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, that could live on." These microbes are on it. We'd like to find out and try to localize any potential habitable oases in the Martian crust."

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Mars surface with Mont Mercou. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

Mars is the closest and closest neighbor to Earth in the solar system, as it is a rocky planet 1.5 times farther from the sun than the Earth is from the sun.

It has the same degree of inclination of the axis and the same seasons of the year as on Earth, and scientists believe that there was water on its surface 3.8 billion years ago, which supports the idea of life on its surface at some time, a theory that scientists traded, even theoretically.

Microbial life on Mars

A study - based on climate modeling - found that ancient microbes caused climate change on Mars and made it less habitable.

The researchers published the results of this study in the journal Nature Astronomy, on October 10.

The study was led by astrobiologist Boris Souteri of the Biology Department of the Ecole Normale Supérieure Biologie de l'Ecole Supérieure (IBENS) in Paris.

The results indicate that during the Nocian period, the Martian crust may have provided a favorable environment for microbial life, and the porous soil could have left an area protected from ultraviolet and cosmic radiation.

The Nocian period is a geological system and early time period on Mars, characterized by high rates of meteorites, asteroids and impacts, and the potential for abundant surface waters from 4100 to 3700 million years ago.

The temperature below the surface, and the pervasiveness of the dense atmosphere, facilitated the existence of simple microbes that consumed hydrogen and carbon dioxide as sources of energy and carbon and produced methane as waste.

The study concluded that around the same time - when primitive life was taking hold in the oceans of the primitive Earth - the exact opposite happened on Mars.

And space.com states - in a report published on October 10 - that Soteri and his team conducted a complex computer modeling study that simulates the interaction of what we know about the ancient atmosphere and lithosphere of Mars, with hydrogen-consuming microbes similar to those that were present on Mars. ancient land.

These researchers found that at a time when the presence of methane produced by these microbes on Earth was gradually warming the planet, Mars began to cool instead, pushing the microbes into deeper layers of the planet's crust to survive.

Slow down the greenhouse effect

“At that time, Mars was relatively humid and warm, between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius, and had liquid water in the form of rivers, lakes and possibly oceans on its surface, but its atmosphere was completely different from that of the Earth,” Suteri told Space.com.

"It was dense, but richer in carbon dioxide and hydrogen, both of which were powerful heating gases," he added.

And when primitive microbes began to devour hydrogen and produce methane - which acts on Earth as a powerful greenhouse gas - this slowed the global warming effect, causing a gradual cooling of the ancient planet, and thus became inhospitable, especially as it is farther from the sun than the Earth is from it. It is naturally cooler, and in dire need of greenhouse gases to maintain a temperature suitable for life.

"On ancient Mars, hydrogen was a very powerful heating gas because of something we call the impact absorption effect where carbon dioxide and hydrogen molecules interact with each other," Souteri said.

"We don't see that on Earth because our planet's atmosphere isn't as rich in carbon dioxide as Mars was in the past. So the microbes basically replaced a more potent greenhouse gas (hydrogen) with a less potent warming gas (methane), which eventually had a cooling effect." ".

Escape to the depths and self-destruction of life

The cold that caused more of the planet's water to freeze into ice (-60°C) pushed the microbes deeper below the planet's surface where they could find warmth.

Modeling revealed that initially the microbes may have lived comfortably just below the sandy surface of Mars, but that they moved to deeper depths of more than a kilometer below the surface of the Martian crust, only a few hundred million years after the cooling event.

And a report - published by Live Science - states that researchers want to know if any of these ancient microbes have survived, in an attempt to find evidence for their theory.

Traces of methane on Mars' scattered atmosphere have previously been detected by satellites, as well as "strange burps" spotted by NASA's Curiosity rover, which may provide evidence that microbes are still present.

The report also notes the scientists' belief that their findings suggest that life may not be self-sufficient and instinctively self-sufficient in every favorable environment in which it emerges, and could easily obliterate itself by accidentally destroying the very foundations of its existence.

"The components of life are everywhere in the universe," says Souteri. "But the inability of this life to maintain habitable conditions on the planet's surface is causing it to become extinct very quickly. Our experiment takes it (life) a step further because it shows that it is very primitive."

"Because the Martian atmosphere has mostly disappeared. these microbes would have to switch to another source of energy, and we can imagine that some geological processes on Mars today could provide the same kind of active substrate, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, that could live on." These microbes are on it. We'd like to find out and try to localize any potential habitable oases in the Martian crust."