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A new study suggests that Mars could have a sufficient amount of groundwater. Credit: Twitter
by Elton Gomes
Scientists meticulously explore the surface of Mars in search of signs of ancient life. By digging a little deeper, a team of researchers could have found habitable areas in unexpected places of the red planet.
After expanding their research, a team of researchers discovered that the old subsurface of the red planet could harbor microbial life for hundreds of millions of years.
The microbes could obtain sufficient energy by borrowing hydrogen with water. This energy would have been sufficient to allow the microbes not only to survive in the subsoil, but also to flourish for miles beneath the surface.
This research will benefit future missions as they could search for areas where the subsoil is now exposed, thus demonstrating the existence of Martian life.
"We have shown, based on physical and chemical calculations, that the ancient Martian subsoil probably contained enough dissolved hydrogen to feed a global underground biosphere," said Jesse Tarnas, a student at Brown State University. -United. PTI reported.
What did the researchers discover?
The study was published in Scientific letters of the Earth and planets. It shows that radiolysis, the process by which radiation breaks water molecules in their constituent parts of hydrogen and oxygen, would have created significant amounts of hydrogen on the ancient subsoil of Mars.
Researchers suggest that large quantities of hydrogen in the crust of Mars, about four billion years ago, would have been enough to maintain many microbes on Earth.
"The conditions in this habitable zone would have been similar to the places on Earth where underground life exists," Tarnas said. PTI reported.
However, the results do not mean that life definitely existed on the old Mars. But they suggest that if life had begun, the Martian basement had the key ingredients to support it for hundreds of millions of years, according to the researchers.
NASA suggests that Mars was habitable
The ancient basement of Mars made headlines in June, when NASA would have found the most complete evidence. NASA scientists have stated that the best evidence that life once existed on Mars has been revealed in 3 billion-year-old organic matter in rocks and cyclic methane emissions on the surface of the planet. The announcement was made during a press conference to explain the recent findings of NASA's Curiosity rover.
"What organic detections do in the rock is to add to the history of habitability. He tells us that this ancient environment on Mars could have supported life, "said NASA biochemist Jennifer Eigenbrode. "All that was needed to support life was there. But that does not tell us that life was there » Sputnik News reported.
What does it mean for the search for life on Mars?
The researchers in this study discovered that about 4 billion years ago, the Martian subsurface absorbed enough hydrogen to energize microbes for hundreds of millions of years.
Their model shows that microbial ecosystems stretched for several kilometers in the basement of Mars and could withstand warmer and colder conditions than expected. In addition, the underground hydrogen molecules were trapped by a thick layer of ice, the extremely cold regions becoming the ideal focus for hungry microbes.
"People have the impression that a cold climate in early March is bad for life, but what we show is that there is more chemical energy for life underground in a cold climate" said Jesse Tarnas. "We think this could change people's perception of the relationship between climate and life on Mars."
It should be noted that many factors still need to be taken into account. More importantly, the existence or not of any life on Mars remains unknown. However, showing that life would have had enough energy to survive brings us closer to the potential signs of extraterrestrials.
Elton Gomes is editor at Qrius
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