Some terrestrial organisms can survive on Mars

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Berlin-Adlershof (Germany) – As part of the BIOMEX project, hundreds of samples of terrestrial organisms aboard the ISS International Space Station have been exposed to the conditions of space and Mars between 2014 and 2016. The results of the latency test now show that some terrestrial organisms can survive and thrive even in Martian conditions. Life on Mars seems to be possible – even today.

As scientists at the German Aerospace Center explain at a scientific conference on BIOMEX in March 2019, sensors have also been developed as part of an experiment to detect metabolic products of microorganisms during future space missions.

While today, Mars still has many properties in common with the Earth and that, in its geological past, water has also flowed to its surface, conditions on the red planet are so extreme that it is difficult to imagine that here organimen – as we know of the earth – could survive.

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"Finding out if this was still possible was one of the goals of the DLR BIOMEX's coordinated experiment (BIOlogy and Mars Experience) on the ISS International Space Station," reports the accompanying press release. , and summarizes one of the main findings of the study: "In fact, some terrestrial biological substances and structures are very harsh.They survived marginal environmental conditions during a stress test in the field." Space of 18 months Samples of different organisms such as bacteria, algae, lichens and fungi were exposed to vacuum, intense UV radiation and extreme temperature differences on a platform ISS exterior for a total of 533 days Some organisms and biomolecules have shown considerable radiation resistance in open spaces and have actually returned to Earth as "survived "from the space."

"In particular, we studied archaea, that is, unicellular microorganisms, such as they have been on Earth for more than three and a half billion years in saltwater". says Dr. astrobiologist Jean-Pierre Paul de Vera of the Planetary Research Institute DLR in Berlin-Adlershof, who was the scientific director of BIOMEX. "Our" subjects "are isolated relatives of Arctic permafrost, they have survived in space conditions and are also detectable with our instruments." These are single-celled organisms whose astrobiologists are still discussing as candidates for life forms that could still exist on Mars today. With this result, "the main objective of the experiment" had been achieved, according to the DLR.

However, this awareness does not mean that life on the planet must actually happen on Mars, researchers at De Vera's DLR limit it at the same time. "But his research is more than ever the most powerful engine of the next generation of space missions to Mars."

According to BIOMEX astrobiologists, the results also reinforce the theory of panspermia. According to the 3.8 billion years ago on the beginning of March, organisms already existed in early March and were catapulted by an asteroidal impact into the rock ejected in this way to the Earth. In the form of meteorites, life should also have reached the young earth and develop further. "

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The project also aimed to reach scientists and detect metabolic products or cellular constituents formed by microorganisms with instruments also measured during future missions on the Martian surface, without it being necessary to prepare samples on site .

One of the methods used is Raman spectroscopy, with which samples can be examined non-destructively and without contact with the Martian surface from a mobile. "Laser beams, energy-rich and concentrated light, stimulate the molecules to vibrate," Dr. Ute Böttger of the DLR Institute for Optical Sensor Systems, who also participates in BIOMEX, adds : "Different molecules have different vibration patterns, which can be used as a separate fingerprint for the identification of molecules and crystal structures."

The results of BIOMEX are advancing not only for the search for extraterrestrial life on Mars, but also for the definition of so-called biosignatures in space and the widening of the base of a database, base from the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system "Future missions, such as ESA's ExoMars mission planned for 2020, will greatly benefit from this data," say DLR researchers. "They can be an important aid in the identification and badignment of signals observed in ExoMars 2020 or obtained from spacecraft using other celestial bodies, for example, in ice fountains. the moon of Saturn, Enceladus has detected traces of methane.There, as well as under the ice crusts of the moons of Jupiter in Europe and Ganymede, there will probably be large quantities of water in which organisms unicellular primitives could originate. "

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