Life on Mars :
Ever since NASA announced the presence of liquid water on Mars, the planet has gained more interest from earthlings like never before.
Almost every Space Organization of the world now has an eye on the red planet with a sole mission – to find life on Mars and to colonize the planet if possible.
Is it true that there’s alien life on Mars…?
There have been many hypotheses about life on Mars since the report of the presence of liquid water on the planet for many years. But the recent research data may possibly have found an end to this old debate on the presence of Life on Mars.
According to the research conducted by the scientists of Southwest Research Institute, Universities Space Research Association (USRA), and the University of Arkansas published in Nature Astronomy, the planet is inhospitable for any life form to survive.
On the frigid surface of Mars, pure liquid water cannot last long but the water that is strongly impregnated with salt can hang around for a while. The presence of salts on Mars’ surface in the form of perchlorates was detected by NASA’s Curiosity and Phoenix.
Image credit: Flickr
But there’s no absolute finding of salty liquid water on Mars yet. However, scientists have found clues of groundwater and a possible lake buried near the South pole of the Red Planet. Most probably in the brine form.
And that liquid brine is not habitable to support any form of life. “Our team looked at specific regions on Mars-areas where liquid water temperature and accessibility limits could possibly allow known terrestrial organisms to replicate to understand if they could be habitable. We used Martian climate information from both atmospheric models and spacecraft measurements. We developed a model to predict where, when and for how long brines are stable on the surface and shallow subsurface of Mars,” Dr. Alejandro Sato, a senior research scientist of the study said in a press note.
Also read: Perseverance Search for Ancient Life on Mars…
To understand more about the behavior of brines in the Martian environment, a computer simulation was run by the planetary scientists at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.
And according to the results, they showed that one type of brine could sustain in liquid form for a few hours on the plant’s surface, most probably at higher northern latitudes. And the temperatures are extremely low for life on Mars.
As per the current data, the salty liquid water wouldn’t get warmer than – 48°C on Mars’ surface which is about 25° colder than the known endurance for life on Earth. However, further studies and researches are scheduled to study and scout the planet in detail for signs of life.
And if the brines on Mars are 100% hostile to support life from Earth, this may become useful for future Mars exploration missions to search for life on Mars and probably also to colonize humans as it may ease the strict planetary contamination protocols.
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