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A study suggests that there may be near-surface environments on Mars with enough oxygen (O2) available for breathing aerobic microbes, which would mean that the red planet could harbor life.
This is indicated by a published work. in & # 39; Nature Geosciences & # 39; prepared by scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, both of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (United States) and Harvard University of Cambridge.
Due to the shortage of oxygen in the modern Martian atmosphere, it is badumed that Mars is unable to produce environments with sufficiently high concentrations of O 2 to support aerobic respiration, but the 39; study, which concerns Vlada Stamenkovic, Michael Mischna, Lewis M. Ward and Woodward W. Fischer, presents a thermodynamic framework for the solubility of O2 in brines under Martian conditions near the surface.
Saltwater just below the surface of Mars could contain enough molecular oxygen to keep microbes and sponges alive. The research, led by NASA and the Pasadena Institute of Technology in California (USA), recalls that oxygen is rare on the red planet, unlike the Earth, where aerobic life has evolved parallel photosynthesis.
Researcher at the Center for Astrobiology (CAB) Alberto González Fairén warns that oxygen is not enough to talk about the habitability on Mars, and that there is Other factors preventing livability in Mars. the red planet: very low temperatures, radiation and high concentrations of salts.
For Fairén, the initial hypothesis of this work is correct: when oxygen is available for breathing, living beings increase in size and complexity. "We know it because the first animals on Earth could have been sponges that lived 650 million years ago."
Presence of salts
The first results of the spacecraft have already discovered the existence of a water (in the solid state, ice) at the poles of the red planet and that this The ice was buried in layers of dust, but on July 25, ESA announced the possibility of this water being liquid. The presence of salts has also been revealed.
This new study reveals that modern Mars can withstand liquid environments with dissolved O2 values, with particularly high concentrations in the polar regions, due to lower temperatures at higher latitudes favoring entry d & # 39; oxygen. in brines. Specifically, the general circulation model simulations performed by the researchers show that oxygen concentrations in near-surface environments vary over time and over time, the latter factor being badociated with age-old changes in oxygen levels. tilt or axial tilt.
Even within the bounds of uncertainty, the results suggest that there may be near-surface environments on Mars with sufficient oxygen available for aerobic microbial respiration.
This discovery could also explain the formation of strongly oxidized phases The Martian rocks observed with Mars explorers also suggest that there might be opportunities for aerobic life on modern Mars and other planetary bodies with sources of oxygen independent of photosynthesis.
This summer, the data collected by Mars Express. The European Space Agency (ESA) has highlighted the existence of a pool of liquid water buried under layers of ice and dust in the southern polar region of Mars.
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