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Madrid, Spain
The evidence presented by Italian researchers on the presence of liquid water on Mars is "convincing" but does not imply the existence of life, although they increase the chances of finding it form microorganisms that, if they exist, would be "true champions of resistance".
And that is, although we are talking about the possibility that on Mars there are conditions similar to those of the Earth for the formation of life, organic compounds and salts, the characteristics climatic and / or saline red planet are extreme, so if there are microorganisms they would be "very particular and resistant".
it would become "the most important in the history of humanity" and would have implications not only in basic science, but also in philosophy or religion.
That's what Efe researchers have shown to Victor Parro and Alberto González Fairén, of the Center for Astrobiology (CAB), a joint center of the Higher Council of Scientific Investigations and the # 39; National Institute of Aerospace Technology dedicated to the study of the origin, evolution and presence of life in the Universe
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This is not the first time that the scientific community and the media are talking about water on Mars, but this is the first time The data on liquid and current water are published, not on the redoubts of the past, says Fairen, for whom the radar signal MARSIS from the European probe Mars Express who discovered "is unmistakable" and "tells us that On the planet there is liquid water."
However, Víctor Parro points out, this is not a definitive confirmation, but "convincing evidence" that this underground lake may exist, so we must continue to investigate; both believe that it is an incredible moment in planetary exploration.
According to the data presented and published yesterday in Science, this lake would be under 1.5 kilometers of ice, it would extend over about 20 kilometers and it would have a thickness of only one meter, but in addition it would be salty , or it would not be explained that it was liquid water considering the temperatures between -20 and -70 degrees Celsius to which it seems to be.
There is no need to think of a liquid and crystalline lake like those of the Earth but rather, they both coincide in brine or in a quagmire, which does not diminish the importance of discovery, since any interface between rock particles or soil and even tiny liquid water, is an ideal habitat for microorganisms.
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"The peculiarity of this work is that it's all over the world. it speaks of a stable and permanent water ", summarizes Parro
With this discovery increases the chances of finding life on this planet which, if it exists, should withstand extreme temperatures and a huge concentration of salt; On Earth, microorganisms capable of metabolizing and growing up to -20 degrees in brine have been identified and it is not known if this limit can be exceeded.
How would the Martian organisms then be? If they were, they would be "very specialized", says Fairén, adapted to live under high pressure, at very low temperatures and with a lot of salinity.
There is probably no microorganism on Earth that can live like this; they would be micro-organisms that are not here or have not been discovered yet.
If they find it, they say, many questions would be open, including how they got there. When the planets were formed, it was incandescent bullets and maybe Mars had habitable conditions before the Earth because they cooled faster.
If that was the case, with the radical cooling of the planet, the microorganisms could have taken refuge. favorable of the basement.
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Another unknown to discover would be if it's an independent life to earthly life – it There are theories that say that there are 3800 million years ago there was a massive bombardment of meteorites on Mars and that some materials could jump on Earth – or if it was two different geneses.
If it was the last, there could be even more life planets, outside our solar system .
However, it is still science fiction, warn both astrobiologists, who point out that there is no technology now to reach the south pole of Mars and the depths where these proofs were found, but to other places -tropical and equatorial- where traces of large ice caps appeared two meters below the surface and where we could find "small pockets" Fairen insists on the fact that locating life "would help us find our place in the universe" and Parro concludes that "it would somewhat reduce the pride of humanity, while it would be exciting to feel that we are not alone in this exciting story. "EFE
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