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While investigating Mars rover sensors successful the Atacama desert, researchers inadvertently recovered a assortment of unclassifiable microorganisms called “the acheronian biome”
Space 21 February 2023By Leah Crane
A portion of the Atacama godforsaken called Red Stone Armando Azua-Bustos
The technological instruments we person sent to Mars whitethorn not beryllium capable to observe signs of beingness there. Tests of these instruments connected samples from the Atacama desert in Chile person shown that they whitethorn not beryllium delicate capable to spot biologic material, adjacent if it does beryllium connected Mars.
Armando Azua-Bustos astatine the Spanish Astrobiology Centre successful Madrid and his colleagues took samples successful a portion of the godforsaken called Red Stone, wherever the particulate is reddish due to the fact that it is afloat of hematite, the aforesaid mineral that gives Mars its rusty colour. “This is astir apt the astir Mars-like spot connected Earth,” says Azua-Bustos. “Being determination is astir similar being connected Mars, but for the colour of the sky.”
When they utilized state-of-the-art technological instruments – the benignant lone disposable successful laboratories connected Earth – to analyse the constitution of their samples, they recovered up to 1 microgram of DNA per gram of soil. This included DNA from 19 taxon of bacteria and 2 fungi.
However, astir fractional of the microbial DNA didn’t lucifer thing successful the familial databases we have, starring the researchers to notation to those microbes arsenic “the acheronian microbiome”. This could mean that they are organisms that haven’t antecedently been discovered, oregon that they are relics from organisms that lived successful the country hundreds of millions of years ago. “We cognize the microorganisms are there, we person the sequences, but we cannot archer you what they are,” says Azua-Bustos.
When the researchers tested their samples utilizing instruments comparable to the ones connected current Mars rovers and those planned for the adjacent future, those instruments could hardly observe immoderate microbial material, acheronian oregon otherwise. “If you were an alien coming to Earth and you happened to onshore successful the Atacama godforsaken with instruments similar the ones we person connected Mars, you mightiness accidental Earth is uninhabited,” says Azua-Bustos. “If those instruments are not capable to observe the things that we cognize are connected this site, however are they going to spot thing connected Mars wherever we don’t adjacent cognize what we’re going to find?”
If determination was ever life connected Mars, this means that our spacecraft astir apt wouldn’t beryllium capable to find convincing grounds of it. “We indispensable beryllium cautious astir interpreting lack of beardown grounds of beingness arsenic grounds of its absence,” wrote Carol Stoker astatine NASA Ames Research Center successful California successful a remark portion accompanying the paper. To beryllium definite astir immoderate detection of signs of beingness connected Mars, we’ll person to bring samples backmost to Earth to analyse them – a task which NASA plans to undertake successful the precocious 2020s.
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