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Viking 2 takes a selfie on the utopian plain of Mars. By analyzing the nearby ground, the NASA lander may have inadvertently destroyed the first signs of life on Mars.
Source: NASA / JPL
In the late 1970s, two viking robots sailed on Mars. traces of life that they have found.
This was never the plan, of course. When NASA landed the Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecraft for the first time on the surface of Mars 40 years ago, scientists were delighted to start studying Martian soil for organic molecules that could prove the planet Red was hospitable. life. It should have been a slam-dunk mission. The pockmarked face of Mars was constantly bombarded with tiny carbon-rich meteorites, after all – the detection of the signs of this carbon was considered certain.
But that was not the case. After half a decade of studying the planet, none of the Viking landers could find traces of organic matter. Why not? The NASA Curiosity rover has confirmed the presence of organic molecules on Mars earlier this year, while what was missing from Viking?
A new article, published June 20 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, provides an explanation. The carbon was there all the time, the researchers wrote; Unfortunately, the Viking landers fired. [7 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space]
"A total of four [soil] samples were analyzed, each several times, by quickly heating the sample to one of four temperature stages," Research Center researchers NASA's souls in California and Atmosphere, Media, Spatial Observations Laboratory (LATMOS) in France, written in the new study
The Vikings heated their soil samples to a maximum temperature of 932 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius) for try to release all the volatile organic compounds trapped in these samples. If there was carbon, the traces should have been detectable in the soil vapor. So why not? According to the authors of the new study, there could be something else in the ground that NASA has not negotiated – a flammable fuel that has accidentally burned the carbon into pieces.
The two Viking landers were the first to land successfully on the surface of Mars. The analytical arsenal of the undercarriage included a furnace used to heat the soil at extremely high temperatures. The resulting vapor was then tested for organic compounds
Source: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
Fire and ice
In 2008, a Mars rover named Phoenix was collecting soil near the North Pole of March when he found evidence of an unusual salt called perchlorate. It was an exciting discovery at the time; scientists knew that ancient microorganisms on Earth used perchlorate as a source of energy. Perhaps, they thought, did this cache of Martian salt serve a similar purpose?
The authors of the new study were excited by the salt discovery for a different reason: perchlorate is flammable – so flammable today on Earth to make rockets fuel and fireworks burn more quick. If perchlorate is abundant in Martian soil, the researchers told NewScientist that Viking's attempts to heat this soil could have caused the perchlorate to fire and instantly obliterate any organic molecules that might have been there. find.
If Martian perchlorate actually incinerates carbon-based molecules in the Viking furnace, then there will be evidence in the ashes. When carbon burns with perchlorate, it produces a molecule called chlorobenzene – a mixture of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine that can last several months in the soil. Luckily, NASA's Curiosity robot detected traces of chlorobenzene in Martian soil during an expedition in 2013. For further evidence, the researchers decided to return to Viking itself.
"We looked in the Viking data for a possible reaction product between salt and organic matter in the Viking furnace," the researchers write. The team reanalyzed the original data taken during the Viking mission, this time specifically looking for traces of chlorobenzene.
According to their new paper, the researchers found what they were looking for. The team saw traces of chlorobenzene in samples taken by Viking 2, concluding that the LG might have contained organic matter in the palm of his robotic hand before burning it all down. inadvertently.
Melissa Guzman, a doctoral student at the LATMOS research center in France, told NewScientist that, although this new evidence is convincing, it is not the definitive proof of Martian organic matter. It is possible, for example, that the carbon compounds burned with Mars perchlorate in the Viking furnace actually come from the Earth and accidentally contaminate the samples.
Other scientists are ready to believe. Daniel Glavin, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, who was not involved in the study, told NewScientist that this document "sealed the deal" on organic matter Martian. Indeed, the study suggests that organic molecules could exist at many sites all over the red planet. It remains to be seen if this means that there is a microbial life – and if humans can confirm that life before burning – remains to be seen
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