There is life in the driest desert on Earth. So she could be on Mars
Source:When searching for a new potentially habitable planetary bodies astronomers always pay attention to one aspect – the presence or absence of this planetary body of water. They are so used. On Earth there is water, and it is an important and integral part of sustaining life on our planet. So whether it's the bottom of Europa's ocean (talking about Jupiter and not about part of the world) or liquid methane lakes of Titan – we always pay attention to the presence of even if not water but some liquid. But does it matter really? A new study conducted by Washington state University (USA), suggests that life can exist even at the minimum available amount of liquid, and therefore can exist on such planets as Mars dry.
The Results of this study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The example given is the most arid region is the most arid deserts on the planet – the South American Atacama desert. There decades no rain. A feature of Peruvian currents cools the lower atmosphere and creates a temperature inversion that prevents precipitation. In the best case, the annual rate does not exceed 50 mm. in Other words, we have before us a perfect analogue of the surface of Mars.
theAs all these conditions may be life?
Scientists know that even in these extremely dry conditions found microbial life, but previously, researchers were not sure about one thing: whether their habitats native to these microbes, or they migrated here due to weather factors. In the new study, the researchers came to the conclusion that in this desert there is indeed a constant presence of microbial life.
When visiting the Atacama desert in 2015 after one of the rare rains, scientists have witnessed a real flourishing of microbial life in the soil. When the researchers came back here two years later, in the collected soil samples, they found the same microbial community. Though the latter began to dry up and fall into a kind of hibernation waiting for a new rain.
"it is Always interesting to go to places where, in the opinion of the people, it's just that nothing can survive, and eventually discover that life still somehow found a way to do it," — says the scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch from the University of Washington.
Schulze-Makuch led this study and made it part of their work on the study of the most persistent of extremophiles (organisms able to survive in the harsh conditions of the environment) on the Earth. Their study may help understand how life could spread in the Universe.
"If we ignore the reference to the movie "Jurassic Park", our research indicates that if organisms are able to survive in the most arid regions of our planet, it is quite possible that life could appear and to maintain its presence and at the same Mars" — he added.
Of Course, the results of the study do not allow to draw a final conclusion about what Martian life leads a very secret life. Nevertheless, they indicate the availability. This is due to the confidence scientists that in the past on the red planet had liquid water. Martian microbes could in this time to develop, and when Mars began to dry, they can adapt to changing conditions, to go deeper under the surface and eventually, just as the earthly microbes to become dormant. Because Mars is a planet much colder than Earth, it contains a lot of ice caps. Scientists suspect that if the caps somehow you melt, then microbial communities can again "come to life".
The Next step for the Washington team of scientists will be the study of extremely cold areas and places with high salt content, which in turn will allow to lay a new parallel to Martian conditions.
"On the Earth there are only a few places where you can go in search of new life forms that have managed to survive in environments of severity is not inferior to the Martian. Our task consists in understanding how these organisms are able to survive in such conditions. With this information we will be able to understand where actually worth the search for life on Mars" — summed up by Schultze-Makuch.
Recommended
Can genes create the perfect diet for you?
Diet on genotype can be a way out for many, but it still has a lot of questions Don't know what to do to lose weight? DNA tests promise to help you with this. They will be able to develop the most individual diet, because for this they will use the m...
How many extraterrestrial civilizations can exist nearby?
If aliens exist, why don't we "hear" them? In the 12th episode of Cosmos, which aired on December 14, 1980, co-author and host Carl Sagan introduced viewers to the same equation of astronomer Frank Drake. Using it, he calculated the potential number ...
Why does the most poisonous plant in the world cause severe pain?
The pain caused to humans by the Gimpi-gympie plant can drive him crazy Many people consider Australia a very dangerous place full of poisonous creatures. And this is a perfectly correct idea, because this continent literally wants to kill everyone w...
Related News
Are you ready to get dangerous parasites for the sake of science?
Sometimes in order to test the cure for any disease, scientists have had to recruit a group of volunteers ready to put their lives in danger for the greater good. Of course, most subjects pay some financial compensation for possib...
What would happen if the Earth will be 2°C warmer?
If the world will become warmer by two degrees Celsius, we are doomed. To prevent this, the UN signed the Paris agreement, the international Treaty under which the signatories will attempt to maintain the average global temperatur...
Waiting for "robot of Rembrandt": when machines will start to do really?
Cellist Jan Vogler believed that art makes us human. But what if machines, too, will begin to create art? Above, for example, you can see that they were able to create all sorts of artificial intelligences in a creative field. The...
Can the dark matter to produce "dark life"?
the Vast majority of mass in our Universe is invisible. And for quite a long time physicists are trying to understand what is this elusive mass. If it consists of particles, it is hoped that the Large hadron Collider will be able ...
Amateur astronomer first ever got a picture of the appearance of a supernova
it would Seem, what only well-documented facts of cosmic phenomena have not yet to science. However, in space there are many interesting things that scientists know, but nonetheless never seen in person. It also turns out that a w...
Red wine can prevent teeth and gum disease
Between the supporters of a healthy lifestyle and Amateurs skip dinner a couple of glasses constantly stimulating debates about who is right and who is deeply mistaken. Despite the fact that alcohol in large quantities is definite...
the Study of several tens of galaxies within several billion light years from our own, allowed to open a few black holes, which greatly exceeds our expectations about how big they can grow. A recent study not only helps us better ...
Artificial intelligence from Google will instantly detect a heart attack
it would Seem that the new can come up in the field of methods of diagnosis of diseases of the heart, because all is already invented – know yourself improve existing methods! However, researchers from the biomedical company Veril...
We can change our own biology. But is this society?
the Improvement of our own biology may seem like something out of science fiction category, but attempts to improve humanity, in fact, were made thousands of years ago. Every day we improve ourselves with laborious exercise, medit...
Starfish can see in the dark (and not only)
If you're lucky and once you are on the ocean, you will see sea stars. They come in all sizes and colors, but have you ever wondered how it megalopae or multi-armed creature manages to live in the oceans, remaining so different fr...
Plants colonized Earth for 100 million years earlier than expected
during the first four billion of its existence, our planet was devoid of any life, except microbes. The situation changed radically at the moment when the Earth began to green up , which created a favorable environment for the col...
SpaceX received permission to launch a very valuable cargo
we are Talking about a new space telescope, TESS, permission to run which with the help of rocket Falcon 9, the company Ilona Mask received from the National Directorate of the USA on Aeronautics and space research (NASA). In addi...
Could the Universe be conscious?
Over the past 40 years, scientists gradually opened a strange fact about our Universe: its laws of physics and the initial conditions of the Universe are perfectly tuned in order for life got a chance to develop. It turns out that...
MIT has created a new form of light
If you conduct a little experiment and cross the beams of two flashlights, you'll find that nothing happens (unless, of course, except for the increased brightness). The reason is that photons of light do not interact, but rather ...
A person spends a third of life in "nowhere". Why do we sleep?
Work, friendship, sports, family, food, reading — in the day is clearly not enough time to for all time. To live a full life, many of us carve out precious hours from the time allotted for sleep. Borrow, the next day to pay double...
Modern humans came out of Africa 50 thousand years earlier than previously thought
Israeli archaeologists have discovered the oldest remains of Homo sapiens dated back to the era from 194 to 177 thousand years ago. According to the article published in the journal Science, the discovery is forcing scientists to ...
Chinese geneticists have cloned the first monkey by the method of Dolly the sheep
Chinese biologists first got the healthy young monkeys, which appeared due to the method of transfer of nuclei from somatic cells deprived of its own nucleus the egg. Born young Javanese macaques represent the complete genetic cop...
Microbiologist decoded encoded in the DNA of Bitcoin
In early 2015 Professor Nick Goldman of the European bioinformatics Institute have developed a new method of storing digital information in DNA. In his speech at the world economic forum he told the audience about it, and then ask...
Playing God: the man-made climate change will lead to global catastrophe
using computer modeling scientists have shown how dangerous can be artificial regulation of Earth's climate using geoengineering technologies. The results of a study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, saying...
Big asteroid killed the dinosaurs. And what of the smaller asteroid?
this month, close to the Ground flew a relatively small asteroid, which was discovered, within six days before. Sounds scary, but the fact is that a possible collision of this object with the Earth — an extremely unlikely event. E...
Comments (0)
This article has no comment, be the first!