Alien microbes may be lurking in newly discovered ‘pockets’ in Martian soil, research shows
SCIENTISTS hunting for aliens on the Red Planet may find them hiding within newly discovered “pockets” in Martian soil.
The cavities of air could act as tiny reactors that promote the emergence of microscopic life, according to research.
Experts discovered the pockets while examining billion-year-old pieces of Martian meteorite stored in a French museum.
They say their findings suggest that life may have existed on Mars far later than previous estimates – and it’s possible microbes still live there today.
“Such niches for emerging life may have been generated on Mars at many periods throughout its history,” experts write in the journal Astrobiology.
The team, from a collection of French research labs, investigated the makeup of a Martian meteorite known as NWA 5790.
It was discovered in the north African desert in 2009 and is believed to have been fired towards Earth following an impact on Mars 1.3billion years ago.
At that point, Mars is thought to have had a largely dry and arid landscape – much like it does today.
The planet was covered in lakes and rivers until about 3.7billion years ago, at which point they dried up due to rapid climate change.
Because water is a key component for life, scientists have long believed that if anything ever lived on Mars, it likely did so before this dramatic change.
That may not be the case, researchers write in the new study.
They trained powerful microscopes on samples of NWA 5790, thought to be a piece of Martian crust, and discovered clay.
Previously, it was thought that clay could not form without the presence of water at a planet’s surface.
“To make clays you need water and rocks,” lead researcher Jean-Christophe Viennet told The Sun. “They interact, and you form clays.”
“NWA 5790 comes from this time when Mars had almost no water at the surface. But when we look at it, we found clays. So how did they form?”
Dr Viennet and his colleagues suggest that the clays formed as a result of volcanic activity at the surface of Mars more than a billion years ago.
It’s a theory that scientists have mooted before and with solid evidence behind it may now challenge our idea of what makes a planet habitable.
That’s because clay could act as a melting pot for the development of life without the need for an abundance of water at a planet’s surface.
As it’s created, clay forms a network of internal pockets that “could serve as microreactors” for life, the researchers write in their paper.
All you’d need is a few of life’s ingredients, such as organic molecules like carbon and nitrogen and a splash of water, to get the ball rolling.
Dr Viennet said the clay pockets had “characteristics which are really nice for organic reactions which will eventually lead to life”.
It means that, contrary to popular theories, life might not have needed lakes or rivers to grow on Mars.
Mars facts
Here's what you need to know about the Red Planet...
- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
- It is named after the Roman god of war
- The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can here
- Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest
- Mars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after Earth
- It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun
- So far, there has been 39 missions to Mars but only 16 of these have been successful
Instead, it could have formed in clay after spewed from the planet’s numerous volcanoes.
That means microbes may have existed there long after the cut-off of 3.7billion years ago set by many scientists for the end of Martian life
“You can form these reactions [in clay] for life across the whole period of Mars,” Dr Viennet. “You just need volcanic activity.”
Does that mean microscopic Martians could still live on the planet today? We don’t know, Dr Viennet told The Sun. But it’s certainly possible.
The researchers acknowledge that the presence of clay does not necessarily guarantee the growth of microbes.
You’d still need a bit of water, as well as organic molecules like carbon and nitrogen.
While it’s thought that these ingredients may have existed on the planet at the time, we can’t know for sure.
Mars also did not have an atmosphere 1.3billion years ago, making it tricky for anything to survive the resulting bombardment of cosmic radiation that still batters the planet today.
Most read in Science
In other news, Nasa has baffled space fans by releasing an image of what appears to be a rainbow on Mars.
The mystery surrounding what looks like giant spiders on the surface of Mars may finally have been solved.
And, China’s Martian probe has sent back eerie images of the Red Planet.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk