Underground Microbes May Have Existed in Ancient Mars [Study]

Underground microbes could have thrived and flourished in ancient Mars, according to a new study led by France.

There is still no evidence of any intelligent life on Mars and across the Universe. However, French scientists said the Red Planet may once had an environment where it harbored an underground world filled with microscopic organisms.

Regardless, this shows simple life forms could also exist there.

The study implies that there is an irony in existence of the Martian microbes since they could also be responsible for the total alteration of the planet's atmosphere, which triggered a Martian Ice Age and also prevented the formation of life.

The researchers made this notion as a conclusion, yet it also highlights the complexity of life, where the necessary conditions are needed in order for abiogenesis to take place.

Mars has long been fascination of astronomers and space enthusiasts.

Amongst all the planets in our solar system except for Earth, the Martian landscape has the highest amount of attention in the form of astronomical inquiries and potential space missions in the future.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has also expressed Mars to be the next human frontier in space colonization.

Underground Microbes

(Photo : Photo by NASA/Newsmakers)

In the new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the research team, which includes Boris Sauterey from Sorbonne University, concluded Mars' crust may have been a conducive environment for microbial life.

The underground world potentially protected the microbes by providing them space and prevented the threats posed by ultraviolet and cosmic radiation.

In addition, the team asserts the environment could have supported the simple microbial organisms which consumed hydrogen and carbon dioxide as energy, as well as produced methane as a waste.

On Earth, the new research said this process is called hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis, which was one of the earliest metabolisms.

Also Read: Finding Life on Mars: Scientists to Remodel Plans to Use Helicopters Instead of Rovers

Martian Crust

However, the same process in Mars likely triggered a global cooling event, ending potential early warm conditions and preventing surface habitability.

The planetary and atmospheric relationship in the Red Planet also pushed the biosphere, which was supposedly on the surface, further downward deep into the Martian crust.

Predictions on spatial projections at lowland sites from low to medium latitudes or near the surface as good candidates to unravel traces of the early life on Mars, even if they come in the form of the simple life form.

Ancient Mars with its potentially moist and warm climate would have been damaged by an excessive amount hydrogen amid the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

This is theoretically possible as temperatures possibly by almost minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius), according to Sauterey, as cited by Phys.org.

Life on Mars

NASA researchers are more knowledgeable than ever regarding the debate about life on Earth to Mars. This is due to the continuous search for life on Mars by rovers and probes.

If all plan goes well, a new generation of rovers will arrive on Marrs within the next decade.

These future space missions will carry cutting-edge biotechnology with the objective of detecting individual molecules made by Martian organisms, either they are still alive or not, according to Smithsonian Magazine.