A few years from now, a small capsule will enter Earth's atmosphere and plummet to the ground under a parachute. The parachute is likely to be radar reflective so that it can be easily tracked. It is a popular spot for sample returns in the Australian desert. Scientists will take it to a lab that is sterile and secure. There will be rock samples from Mars inside.
Scientists should be careful if a new study is true.
Perseverance was sent to Mars to look for evidence of life on the red planet. It gathers samples and stores them. The samples will be sent back to Earth in the future.
There will be a twist if the new research is correct. The samples could containbacteria that weren't present in the past.
There is a study on the effects of desiccation and freezing on ionizing radiation survivability. There is a publication in the journal Astrobiology. The author is a professor at the USU.
The Perseverance Rover isn't very deep. If the study is correct, it won't have to. The research shows thatbacteria could live close to the surface for hundreds of millions of years.
Even though Mars is dry, frigid, and bleak, there are still images of the beautiful side of the planet. We can conclude that it is a dead planet with our current knowledge. Mars was a warm, wet place in the past, and it was a good place to live. It's at least simple.
As scientists learn more about the different types of bugs on Earth, they're more likely to find them on Mars. Extremophilic people are like a bookend for life. They show how extreme an environment can be. Mars is an extremely extreme place.
According to one of the paper's senior authors, there is no water in the atmosphere of Mars. The surface temperature on Mars is similar to dry ice, so it is deep frozen.
Ionizing radiation on Mars is an extreme. There is no atmosphere or magnetic shield to protect the surface from the sun's rays. The lack of water is extreme. If life could survive, the researchers did a simulation.
The first thing to do was to figure out how much ionizing radiation is needed to kill life. Six types of Earthbacteria and fungi were exposed to radiation in a Martian environment after being chosen. They changed the amount of radiation to make it look different. The more buried the organisms are, the less exposed they are to radiation.
The researchers used a radioactive substance to find out how much radiation they would get. An advanced technique was used to measure the build up ofAntioxidant in the organisms cells There is a correlation between the amount of radiation an organisms can tolerate and the amount of-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873-8873--8873-8873 An organisms ability to survive in harsh conditions is due to the fact that it is able to absorb more Radiation.
Scientists know that Deinococcus radiodurans is one of the most radiation resistant organisms. It can tolerate multiple environmental extremes, which makes it a polyextremophile. Extreme cold, radiation, acidity, dehydration, and vacuum are some of the things D. radiodurans can handle. It was called the Bacterium by scientists.
“It’s a very, very ancient organism that has been around presumably for billions of years. In the long, long history of Earth, there have never been levels of ionizing radiation that approach the levels that these and other bacteria can survive.”
Michael Daly, lead author, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
In an interview with Universe Today, the lead author described how he has been writing for 30 years. It's called Deinococcus radiodurans. The Greek and Latin roots are related. It is known for its extreme resistance to ionizing radiation. That includes x-rays, gamma rays, and solar protons.
In 1956, D. radiodurans was discovered as a result of research into sterilizing canned food. The meat in the cans was spoiled even after being exposed to a radioactive substance. The culprit was a plant called D. radiodurans.
It is a very ancient organisms that has been around for a long time. There have never been levels of ionizing radiation that approach the levels that these and otherbacteria can survive.
When an organisms has never had to be exposed to radiation, why can it survive?
Damage to radiation is caused by desiccation. Ionizing radiation and desiccation damage all the machinery needed to put DNA back together again. D. radiodurans protects its ability to repair its own genes. Thebacteria have many copies of their genome, which means they always have a plan for repairing their genes. The same repair mechanism is used for radiation damage.
If suspended in water, the Bacterium could hold up to 1.2 million years of radiation from Mars. The research bolsters the reputation of the man. The dried, frozen D. radiodurans can survive 1.5 million years of surface radiation on Mars. It can survive for over two centuries if it is buried even deeper.
This is a big deal. Mars has been irradiated for a long time. Mars was warm and wet for about 2.5 billion years. The Bacterium could possibly survive that long.
The paper's authors think it's possible.
The lead author said in a press release that the environments on Mars have been altered and melted by meteorite impacts. Periodic melting can allow intermittent repopulation and dispersal.
They are likely to have left evidence of their existence even if they haven't been alive for a long time. Even if viable life forms are not present on Mars, their macromolecules and viruses would live a long time. That makes it more likely that this will be revealed in future missions.
What will the samples that are returned to Earth look like? Perseverance can only get a small amount of the regolith. The first few centimetres don't offer a lot of protection. The sun slams protons into the regolith. The paper shows that the most dangerous radiation environment is the top few centimetres. It is possible that Perseverance samples contain D. radiodurans.
Future rovers will be able to collect more samples. The samples will be taken from as deep as 6 feet below the surface. Future rovers that can reach the same depth will be different from the ones that are currently in use. The stakes are raised when it comes to the risk ofcontamination.
The deeper we go, the more chance we have of finding life on Mars. Life is underground beneath the surface. Is it possible that the same thing could happen for Mars?
Before they existed on Earth, the preconditions for life were on Mars. Life may have escaped down beneath the surface or in lava caves if conditions deteriorated on the surface. Life is very deep down on Earth. There are lots of people down there. There is no reason for me to think that there wouldn't be life on Mars.
We can't get to those depths for the foreseeable future. Could it be close to the surface? That is a possibility according to our work. There are opportunities for recovery even though everything has been frozen for billions of years.
Mars is covered in impact craters that produce heat that causes ice to melt. Impact sites can stay warm for a long time after being hit. These organisms might be able to recover.
The study was led by a member of the National Academies committee on planetary protection.
Over the course of thousands of years, the authors concluded that Mars would be contaminated. It could make it harder to look for life on Mars. If microbes evolved on Mars, they would be able to survive until the current day. It's possible that returning Mars samples could cause harm.
Did life on Mars affect Earth?
Simple life developed on Mars first and then traveled to Earth on a meteorite, according to one hypothesis. Panspermia is called that.
Daly said that panspermia could happen. There are a lot of things to keep in mind. Organisms would have to be able to survive a lot of things. There are rocks in the space and the sun is shining. Any life would have to survive the heat.
They would have to survive re-entry.
He doesn't know much about atmospheric re-entry. He said there are examples of rocks from the heavens that are still frozen.
The outer layer of material is removed when a meteorite travels through the atmosphere. Some rocks could be cool when they land because of Ablation. Is the inside still frozen if they are large?
Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated in a 2001 NASA article that asteroids are not good conductors of heat. Even though the outer layers are gone, the central regions are still cool.
There is a puzzle in life in the solar system. Scientists have made enormous progress in their understanding of where and when it originated and how it might have spread through space.
We will probably wait a long time before we have a good idea of life, how it spreads, and how long it can live in different environments. The study shows how persistent some life can be.
If a lifeform similar to D. radiodurans is found in the Perseverance samples, there will be a huge piece of the puzzle.
The professor's remarks were edited for clarity.
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