The three Mars rovers might not find anything, not because extraterrestial life on Mars doesn't exist, but because it has simply found its way underground.
There are currently three different Mars rovers puttering around the surface of the Red Planet with the express purpose of trying to find signs of past or present alien life. However, they might not find anything—not because extraterrestrial life on Mars doesn’t exist, but because it has simply found its way underground.has found that ancient bacteria would have the ability to survive under the surface of Mars for much longer than we previously thought.
That’s great news for missions like ExoMars run by the European Space Agency, which will include the Rosalind Franklin rover; and the Mars Life Explorer concept pitched by NASA. Both missions would include the ability to drill down into the surface to extract materials. So the researchers decided to find out whether life could actually survive these conditions. They grew six types of Earthbound bacteria and fungi in Mars-like conditions emulating the frozen temperatures and intense dryness—and blasted them with radiation.
The researchers found that the ability of these organisms to survive seems to correlate with increased amounts of manganese antioxidants in the cells or spores. If a microbe like Conan managed to evolve billions of years ago when water was teeming on Mars, and managed to absorb enough manganese antioxidants, it could still be alive in a dormant state just below the surface.
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