Study suggests microbes could find a potential home beneath the icy water on the surface of Mars

Oct. 18 () –

A new study of NASA suggests microbes could find a potential home beneath the icy water on the surface of Marsas reported by the agency. Specifically, researchers have shown, through computer models, that the amount of sunlight that could pass through ice at a depth of Up to three meters below the surface would be enough for photosynthesis to take place in the ponds. shallow meltwater that forms beneath the surface.

Additionally, in this scenario, the upper layers of ice on Mars prevent shallow underground pools of water from evaporating, while also providing protection from harmful radiation. As NASA has pointed out, Similar ponds on Earth have been found to be “teeming with life” with algae, microscopic fungi and cyanobacteria, all of which obtain energy from photosynthesis.

The text, published in ‘Nature Communications Earth & Environment’has focused on frozen water, one of the two types of ice on Mars along with frozen carbon dioxide. Large amounts of the central frozen water in the study formed from snow mixed with dust that fell to the planet’s surface during a series of Martian ice ages that occurred over the last million years. Since then, That snow has solidified and turned into ice, although it is still sprinkled with specks of dust, which are “key” to explaining how underground pools of water can form. inside the ice when exposed to the Sun.

In this way, the agency has detailed that the dark dust absorbs more sunlight than the surrounding ice, potentially causing the ice to heat up and melt up to a few feet below the surface. Although scientists who study Mars disagree on whether ice can melt when exposed to the Martian surface, The atmospheric effects that hinder melting on the Martian surface would not apply below the surface of a dusty snowpack or glacier.

According to co-author Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, melting ice from within “is a common phenomenon on Earth.” Thus, NASA has explained that, on Earth, dust within the ice can create what are called cryoconite holes, that is, small cavities that form in the ice when dust particles carried by the wind (called cryoconite ) fall there, absorb sunlight, and melt more and more into the ice each summer. These particles stop sinking when they move away from the Sun’s rays. However, They still generate enough heat to create a pocket of meltwater around them that can feed a thriving ecosystem for simple life forms..

The authors of the study have pointed out that the water ice that would be most likely to form underground puddles would exist in the tropics of Mars, between 30 and 60 degrees latitude, in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Now, the study’s lead author, Aditya Khuller of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern Californiahopes to recreate some of Mars’ dusty ice in a laboratory to study it up close.

Meanwhile, he and other scientists are beginning to map the most likely places on Mars to look for shallow meltwater, places that could be scientific targets for possible human and robotic missions in the future. “If we’re trying to find life anywhere in the universe today, Martian ice exhibits are probably one of the most accessible places we should look.“, he stated.