Researchers Say "Conan the Bacterium" Could Be Hidden Beneath Mars’ Surface

Scientists should be on the lookout for it when analyzing the latest data from the Red Planet.

According to the study, a form ofbacteria found on Earth, known as Deinococcus radiodurans, could live for as long as possible.

The "Conan" research found that the ancient bacterium could survive for more than a million years.

In the study, which was published this week in the Astrobiology journal, scientists tested multiple "extremophile" fungi andbacteria characterized by their ability to survive extreme conditions that kill everything else, to see if they could do the same with Mars.

The organisms shot at by the scientists were able to handle the radiation, but D. radiodurans was well-suited to the extreme cold and dry of Mars.

"In the novel experiments, Conan the Bacterium survived astronomical amounts of radiation in the freezing, arid environment," reads the university writeup.

Building on the previous research which found that this hardcorebacteria could handle Mars-like radiation, the research team used a new method to determine how long the organisms can survive.

When buried 10 meters below the surface of Mars, the Bacterium can survive 1.5 million years, but when bathed in the ultraviolet light of the Sun, it only lasts for a short time.

"If Martian life ever existed, even if viable lifeforms are not present on Mars, their macromolecules and viruses would survive much, much longer," study lead Michael Daly, a professor of pathology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, said. "That makes it more likely that this will be revealed in future missions."

Future Mars missions should bring back samples to test for D. radiodurans, as well as make sure that they do so safely, because of the fear of alienContamination on Earth.

A senior coauthor of the study said that the study concluded that Mars would be contaminated over a long period of time. It could make it harder to look for life on Mars. If microbes evolved on Mars, they could live on the red planet for a long time. The return of Mars samples could cause harm to Earth.

It's looking like Mars could be hospitable to certain types of life, at least in theory, and if it's as hardy as scientists think, we'll want to be very careful with how we handle any samples we bring back to Earth.

Scientists theorize that ancient life on Mars caused the destruction of the planet.