Life in Mars Essay Example
Life in Mars Essay Example

Life in Mars Essay Example

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  • Pages: 16 (4310 words)
  • Published: July 25, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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For centuries people have speculated about the possibility of life on Mars owing to the planet’s propinquity and similarity to Earth. Serious hunts for grounds of life began in the nineteenth century. and go on via telescopic probes and landed missions. While early work focused on phenomenology and bordered on phantasy. modern scientific enquiry has emphasized the hunt for chemical biosignatures of life in the dirt and stones at the planet’s surface. and the hunt for biomarker gases in the ambiance.

Fictional Martians have been a repeating characteristic of popular amusement of the twentieth and 21st centuries. and it remains an unfastened inquiry whether life presently exists on Mars. or has existed at that place in the yesteryear. Early guess Mars’ polar ice caps were observed every bit early as the mid-17th century. and th

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ey were foremost proven to turn and shrivel alternately. in the summer and winter of each hemisphere. by William Herschel in the latter portion of the eighteenth century. By the mid-19th century. uranologists knew that Mars had certain other similarities to Earth. for illustration that the length of a twenty-four hours on Mars was about the same as a twenty-four hours on Earth.

They besides knew that its axial joust was similar to Earth’s. which meant it experienced seasons merely as Earth does — but of about dual the length owing to its much longer twelvemonth. These observations led to the addition in guess that the darker reflective power characteristics were H2O. and brighter 1s were land. It was hence natural to say that Mars may be inhabited by some signifier of life. In 1854. William Whewell. a chap of Trinity College. Cambridge

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who popularized the word scientist. theorized that Mars had seas. land and perchance life signifiers.

Guess about life on Mars exploded in the late nineteenth century. following telescopic observation by some perceivers of evident Martian canals — which were nevertheless shortly found to be optical semblances. Despite this. in 1895. American uranologist Percival Lowell published his book Mars. followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906. proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilisation. [ 2 ] This thought led British author H. G. Wells to compose The War of the Worlds in 1897. relation of an invasion by foreigners from Red planets who were flying the planet’s dehydration.

Spectroscopic analysis of Mars’ atmosphere began in earnest in 1894. when U. S. astronomer William Wallace Campbell showed that neither H2O nor O were present in the Martian ambiance. [ 3 ] By 1909 better telescopes and the best perihelic resistance of Mars since 1877 once and for all put an terminal to the canal theory. Missions Mariner 4 Mariner 4 investigation performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars. returning the first images of the Martian surface in 1965. The exposure showed an waterless Red planets without rivers. oceans. or any marks of life.

Further. it revealed that the surface ( at least the parts that it photographed ) was covered in craters. bespeaking a deficiency of home base tectonics and weathering of any sort for the last 4 billion old ages. The investigation besides found that Mars has no planetary magnetic field that would protect the planet from potentially dangerous cosmic beams. The investigation was able to cipher the atmospheric force per unit

area on the planet to be approximately 0. 6 kPa ( compared to Earth’s 101. 3 kPa ) . intending that liquid H2O could non be on the planet’s surface. 3 ] After Mariner 4. the hunt for life on Mars changed to a hunt for bacteria-like life beings instead than for multicellular beings. as the environment was clearly excessively rough for these. Viking satellites Liquid H2O is necessary for known life and metamorphosis. so if H2O was present on Mars. the opportunities of it holding supported life may hold been deciding. The Viking satellites found grounds of possible river vales in many countries. eroding and. in the southern hemisphere. branched watercourses. Viking experiments

The primary mission of the Viking investigations of the mid-1970s was to transport out experiments designed to observe micro-organisms in Martian dirt because the favourable conditions for the development of multicellular beings ceased some four billion old ages ago on Mars. The trials were formulated to look for microbic life similar to that found on Earth. Of the four experiments. merely the Labeled Release ( LR ) experiment returned a positive consequence. demoing increased 14CO2 production on first exposure of dirt to H2O and foods.

All scientists agree on two points from the Viking missions: that radiolabeled 14CO2 was evolved in the Labeled Release experiment. and that the GC-MS detected no organic molecules. However. there are immensely different readings of what those consequences imply. The image taken by Viking investigations resembling a human face caused many to theorize that it was the work of an extraterrestrial civilisation. One of the interior decorators of the Labeled Release experiment. Gilbert Levin. believes his consequences are

a unequivocal diagnostic for life on Mars.

However. this consequence is disputed by many scientists. who argue that superoxidant chemicals in the dirt could hold produced this consequence without life being present. An about general consensus discarded the Labeled Release information as grounds of life. because the gas chromatograph & A ; mass spectrometer. designed to place natural organic affair. did non observe organic molecules. The consequences of the Viking mission refering life are considered by the general expert community. at best. as inconclusive.

In 2007. during a Seminar of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution ( Washington. D. C. . USA ) . Gilbert Levin’s probe was assessed one time more. Levin still maintains that his original informations were right. as the positive and negative control experiments were in order. Furthermore. Levin’s squad. on 12 April 2012. reported a statistical guess. based on old informations —reinterpreted mathematically through complexness analysis— of the Labeled Release experiments. that may propose grounds of “extant microbic life on Mars. Critics counter that the method has non yet been proven effectual for distinguishing between biological and non-biological procedures on Earth so it is premature to pull any decisions.

Ronald Paepe. an edaphologist ( soil scientist ) . communicated to the European Geosciences Union Congress that the find of the recent sensing of silicate minerals on Mars may bespeak pedogenesis. or dirt development processes. extended over the full surface of Mars. Paepe’s reading positions most of Mars surface as active dirt. colored ruddy by eons of widespread erosion by H2O. flora and microbic activity.

A research squad from the National Autonomous University of Mexico headed by Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez. concluded that the equipment (

TV-GC-MS ) used by the Viking plan to seek for organic molecules. may non be sensitive plenty to observe low degrees of organics. Because of the simpleness of sample handling. TV–GC–MS is still considered the standard method for organic sensing on future Mars missions. so Navarro-Gonzalez suggests that the design of future organic instruments for Mars should include other methods of sensing.

Gillevinia straata The claim for life on Mars. in the signifier of Gillevinia straata. is based on old informations reinterpreted as sufficient grounds of life. chiefly by professors Gilbert Levin. Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez and Ronalds Paepe. The grounds back uping the being of Gillevinia straata micro-organism relies on the informations collected by the two Mars Viking Landers that searched for biosignatures of life. but the analytical consequences were. officially. inconclusive.

In 2006. Mario Crocco. a neurobiologist at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital Borda in Buenos Aires. Argentina. proposed the creative activity of a new nomenclatural rank that classified the Viking landers’ consequences as ‘metabolic’ and hence belonging to a signifier of life. Crocco proposed to make new biological ranking classs ( taxa ) . in the new land system of life. in order to be able to suit the genus of Martian micro-organisms. Crocco proposed the undermentioned systematic entry:

* Organic life system: Solaria * Biosphere: Marciana Kingdom: Jakobia ( named after neurobiologist Christfried Jakob ) * Genus et species: Gillevinia straata As a consequence. the conjectural Gillevinia straata would non be a bacteria ( which instead is a tellurian taxon ) . but a member of the land ‘Jakobia’ in the biosphere ‘Marciana’ of the ‘Solaria’ system. The intended consequence of the new terminology was to change by

reversal the load of cogent evidence refering the life issue. but the taxonomy proposed by Crocco has non been accepted by the scientific community and is considered a individual nomen nudum. Further. no Mars mission has found hints of biomolecules.

Phoenix Lander. 2008 The Phoenix mission landed a robotic ballistic capsule in the polar part of Mars on May 25. 2008 and it operated until November 10. 2008. One of the mission’s two primary aims was to seek for a “habitable zone” in the Martian regolith where microbic life could be. the other chief end being to analyze the geological history of H2O on Mars. The Lander has a 2. 5 metre robotic arm that was capable of delving shallow trenches in the regolith. There was an electrochemistry experiment which analysed the ions in the regolith and the sum and type of antioxidants on Mars.

The Viking plan informations indicate that oxidizers on Mars may change with latitude. observing that Viking 2 saw fewer oxidizers than Viking 1 in its more northern place. Phoenix landed further north still. Phoenix’s preliminary informations revealed that Mars dirt contains perchlorate. and therefore may non be every bit life-friendly as thought before. The pH and salt degree were viewed as benign from the point of view of biological science. The analyzers besides indicated the presence of edge H2O and CO2. Mars Science Laboratory Main articles: Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity wanderer

The Mars Science Laboratory mission is a NASA ballistic capsule launched on November 26. 2011 that deployed the Curiosity wanderer. a nuclear-powered automaton bearing instruments designed to look for past or present conditions relevant to biological activity ( planetal habitableness )

. The Curiosity wanderer landed on Mars on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater. near Aeolis Mons ( a. k. a. Mount Sharp ) . on August 6. 2012. Future missions * ExoMars is a European-led multi-spacecraft programme presently under development by the European Space Agency ( ESA ) and NASA for launch in 2016 and 2018.

Its primary scientific mission will be to seek for possible biosignatures on Mars. yesteryear or nowadays. Two wanderers with a 2 m nucleus drill each will be used to try assorted deepnesss beneath the surface where liquid H2O may be found and where micro-organisms might last cosmic radiation. * Mars Sample Return Mission — The best life sensing experiment proposed is the scrutiny on Earth of a dirt sample from Mars. However. the trouble of supplying and keeping life support over the months of theodolite from Mars to Earth remains to be solved. Supplying for still unknown environmental and nutritionary demands is dashing.

Should dead organisms be found in a sample. it would be hard to reason that those beings were alive when obtained. Meteorites NASA maintains a catalog of 34 Mars meteorites. These assets are extremely valuable since they are the lone physical samples available of Mars. Surveies conducted by NASA’s Johnson Space Center show that at least three of the meteorites contain possible grounds of past life on Mars. in the signifier of microscopic constructions resembling fossilized bacteriums ( alleged biomorphs ) . Although the scientific grounds collected is dependable. its reading varies.

To day of the month. none of the original lines of scientific grounds for the hypothesis that the biomorphs are of exobiological beginning ( the alleged biogenic

hypothesis ) have been either discredited or positively ascribed to non-biological accounts. Over the past few decennaries. seven standards have been established for the acknowledgment of past life within tellurian geologic samples. Those standards are: 1. Is the geologic context of the sample compatible with past life? 2. Is the age of the sample and its stratigraphic location compatible with possible life? 3. Does the sample contain grounds of cellular morphology and settlements?

4. Be there any grounds of biominerals demoing chemical or mineral disequilibria? 5. Be there any grounds of stable isotope forms alone to biology? 6. Are at that place any organic biomarkers present? 7. Are the characteristics autochthonal to the sample? For general credence of past life in a geologic sample. basically most or all of these standards must be met. All seven standards have non yet been met for any of the Martian samples. but continued probes are in advancement. As of 2010. redirect examinations of the biomorphs found in the three Martian meteorites are afoot with more advanced analytical instruments than antecedently available.

The scientists carry oning the survey at Johnson Space Center believed that before the terminal of the twelvemonth they would happen in the meteorites unequivocal grounds for past life on Mars. ALH84001 meteorite The ALH84001 meteorite was found in December 1984 in Antarctica. by members of the ANSMET undertaking ; the meteorite weighs 1. 93 kgs ( 4. 3 pound ) . The sample was ejected from Mars about 17 million old ages ago and spent 11. 000 old ages in or on the Antarctic ice sheets. Composition analysis by NASA revealed a sort of magnetic iron-ore that on

Earth. is merely found in association with certain micro-organisms.

Then. in August 2002. another NASA squad led by Thomas-Keptra published a survey bespeaking that 25 % of the magnetic iron-ore in ALH 84001 occurs as little. uniform-sized crystals that. on Earth. is associated merely with biologic activity. and that the balance of the stuff appears to be normal inorganic magnetic iron-ore. The extraction technique did non allow finding as to whether the perchance biological magnetic iron-ore was organized into ironss as would be expected. The meteorite shows indicant of comparatively low temperature secondary mineralization by H2O and shows grounds of preterrestrial aqueous change.

Evidence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ( PAHs ) have been identified with the degrees increasing off from the surface. Some constructions resembling the mineralized dramatis personaes of tellurian bacteriums and their extremities ( filaments ) or byproducts ( extracellular polymeric substances ) occur in the rims of carbonate globules and preterrestrial aqueous change parts. The size and form of the objects is consistent with Earthly fossilized nanobacteria. but the being of nanobacteria itself is controversial.

In November 2009. NASA scientists said that a recent. more elaborate analysis showed that the meteorite “contains strong grounds that life may hold existed on ancient Mars” . Nakhla Meteorite The Nakhla meteorite fell on Earth on June 28. 1911 on the vicinity of Nakhla. Alexandria. Egypt. In 1998. a squad from NASA’s Johnson Space Center obtained a little sample for analysis. Researchers found preterrestrial aqueous change stages and objects of the size and form consistent with Earthly fossilized nanobacteria. but the being of nanobacteria itself is controversial.

Analysis with gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy ( GC-MS ) studied its high

molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in 2000. and NASA scientists concluded that every bit much as 75 % of the organic affair in Nakhla “may non be recent tellurian contamination” . This caused extra involvement in this meteorite. so in 2006. NASA managed to obtain an extra and larger sample from the London Natural History Museum. On this 2nd sample. a big dendritic C content was observed. When the consequences and grounds were published on 2006. some independent research workers claimed that the C sedimentations are of biologic beginning.

However. it was remarked that since C is the 4th most abundant component in the Universe. happening it in funny forms is non declarative or implicative of biological beginning. Shergotty meteorite The Shergotty meteorite. a 4 kilogram Martian meteorite. fell on Earth on Shergotty. India on August 25. 1865 and was retrieved by informants about instantly. [ 45 ] This meteorite is comparatively immature. calculated to hold been formed on Mars merely 165 million old ages ago from volcanic beginning. It is composed largely of pyroxene and idea to hold undergone preterrestrial aqueous change for several centuries.

Certain characteristics in its interior suggest to be leftovers of biofilm and their associated microbic communities. [ 33 ] Work is in advancement on seeking for magnetic iron-ores within change stages. Liquid H2O No Mars investigation since Viking has tested the Martian regolith specifically for metamorphosis which is the ultimate mark of current life. NASA’s recent missions have focused on another inquiry: whether Mars held lakes or oceans of liquid H2O on its surface in the antediluvian yesteryear. Scientists have found hematite. a mineral that forms in the presence of H2O.

Therefore.

the mission of the Mars Exploration Rovers of 2004 was non to look for present or past life. but for grounds of liquid H2O on the surface of Mars in the planet’s antediluvian yesteryear. Liquid H2O. necessary for Earth life and for metamorphosis as by and large conducted by species on Earth. can non be on the surface of Mars under its present low atmospheric force per unit area and temperature. except at the lowest shaded lifts for short periods and liquid H2O does non look at the surface itself. In June 2000. grounds for H2O presently under the surface of Mars was discovered in the signifier of flood-like gullies.

Deep subsurface H2O sedimentations near the planet’s liquid nucleus might organize a contemporary home ground for life. However. in March 2006. uranologists announced the find of similar gullies on the Moon. which is believed ne'er to hold had liquid H2O on its surface. The uranologists suggest that the gullies could be the consequence of micrometeorite impacts. In March 2004. NASA announced that its wanderer Opportunity had discovered grounds that Mars was. in the antediluvian yesteryear. a wet planet. This had raised hopes that grounds of past life might be found on the planet today.

ESA confirmed that the Mars Express satellite had straight detected immense militias of H2O ice at Mars’ south pole in January 2004. On July 28. 2005. ESA announced that they had recorded photographic grounds of surface H2O ice near Mars’ North pole. In December 2006. NASA showed images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor that suggested that H2O on occasion flows on the surface of Mars. The images did non really demo streamlined

H2O. Rather. they showed alterations in craters and deposit sedimentations. supplying the strongest grounds yet that H2O oursed through them every bit late as several old ages ago. and is possibly making so even now. Some research workers were disbelieving that liquid H2O was responsible for the surface characteristic alterations seen by the ballistic capsule. They said other stuffs such as sand or dust can flux like a liquid and bring forth similar consequences.

Recent analysis of Martian sandstones. utilizing informations obtained from orbital spectroscopy. suggests that the Waterss that antecedently existed on the surface of Mars would hold had excessively high a salt to back up most Earth-like life. Tosca et Al. found that the Martian H2O in the locations they studied all had H2O activity. aw? . 78 to 0. 86—a degree fatal to most Tellurian life. Haloarchaea. nevertheless. are able to populate in hypersaline solutions. up to the impregnation point. The Phoenix Mars Lander from NASA. which landed in the Mars Arctic field in May 2008. confirmed the presence of frozen H2O near the surface. This was confirmed when bright stuff. exposed by the excavation arm of the Lander. was found to hold vaporized and disappeared in 3 to 4 yearss. This has been attributed to sub-surface ice. exposed by the excavation and sublimated on exposure to the ambiance. Methane

Trace sums of methane in the ambiance of Mars were discovered in 2003 and verified in 2004. As methane is an unstable gas. its presence indicates that there must be an active beginning on the planet in order to maintain such degrees in the ambiance. It is estimated that Mars must bring forth 270

ton/year of methane. but star-shaped impacts account for merely 0. 8 % of the entire methane production. Although geologic beginnings of methane such as serpentinization are possible. the deficiency of current volcanism. hydrothermal activity or hot spots are non favourable for geologic methane.

It has been suggested that the methane was produced by chemical reactions in meteorites. driven by the intense heat during entry through the ambiance. Although research published in December 2009 ruled out this possibility. research published in 2012 suggest that a beginning may be organic compounds on meteorites that are converted to methane by ultraviolet radiation. The being of life in the signifier of micro-organisms such as methanogens is among possible. but as yet unproved beginnings.

If microscopic Martian life is bring forthing the methane. it likely resides far below the surface. where it is still warm plenty for liquid H2O to be. Since the 2003 find of methane in the ambiance. some scientists have been planing theoretical accounts and in vitro experiments proving growing of methanogenic bacteriums on fake Martian dirt. where all four methanogen strains tested produced significant degrees of methane. even in the presence of 1. 0wt % perchlorate salt. The consequences reported indicate that the perchlorates discovered by the Phoenix Lander would non govern out the possible presence of methanogens on Mars.

A squad led by Levin suggested that both phenomena—methane production and degradation—could be accounted for by an ecology of methane-producing and methane-consuming micro-organisms. In June 2012. scientists reported that mensurating the ratio of H and methane degrees on Mars may assist find the likeliness of life on Mars. Harmonizing to the scientists. “… low H2/CH4 ratios ( less than

about 40 ) indicate that life is likely present and active. ” Other scientists have late reported methods of observing H and methane in extraterrestrial ambiances. Formaldehyde

In February 2005. it was announced that the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer ( PFS ) on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter. detected hints of methanal in the ambiance of Mars. Vittorio Formisano. the manager of the PFS. has speculated that the methanal could be the by-product of the oxidization of methane. and harmonizing to him. would supply grounds that Mars is either highly geologically active. or harboring settlements of microbic life. NASA scientists consider the preliminary findings are good worth a follow-up. but have besides rejected the claims of life. Silica

In May 2007. the Spirit wanderer disturbed a spot of land with its inoperative wheel. bring outing an country highly rich in silicon oxide ( 90 % ) . The characteristic is evocative of the consequence of hot spring H2O or steam coming into contact with volcanic stones. Scientists consider this as grounds of a past environment that may hold been favourable for microbic life. and speculate that one possible beginning for the silicon oxide may hold been produced by the interaction of dirt with acerb bluess produced by volcanic activity in the presence of H2O. Another possible beginning could hold been from H2O in a hot spring environment.

Based on Earth parallels. hydrothermal systems on Mars would be extremely attractive for their possible for continuing organic and inorganic biosignatures. For illustration. Fe oxidising bacteriums are abundant in Marine and tellurian hydrothermal systems. where they frequently display typical cell morphologies and are normally encrusted by minerals. particularly bacteriogenic Fe

oxides and silicon oxide. Microfossils of Fe oxidising bacteriums have been found in ancient Si-Fe sedimentations and Fe oxidization may be an antediluvian and widespread metabolic tract. 83 ] If possible. future wanderer missions will aim nonextant hydrothermal blowhole systems on Mars.

Geysers on Mars The seasonal icing and defrosting of the southern ice cap consequences in the formation of spider-like radial channels carved on 1 metre midst ice by sunshine. Then. sublimed CO2 – and likely H2O –increase force per unit area in their interior bring forthing geyser-like eruptions of cold fluids frequently assorted with dark basaltic sand or clay. This procedure is rapid. ascertained go oning in the infinite of a few yearss. hebdomads or months. a growing rate instead unusual in geology – particularly for Mars.

A squad of Magyar scientists proposes that the geysers’ most seeable characteristics. dark dune musca volitanss and spider channels. may be settlements of photosynthetic Martian micro-organism. which over-winter beneath the ice cap. and as the sunshine returns to the pole during early spring. light penetrates the ice. the microorganisms photosynthesize and heat their immediate milieus. A pocket of liquid H2O. which would usually vaporize immediately in the thin Martian ambiance. is trapped around them by the overlying ice.

As this ice bed thins. the micro-organism show through Grey. When the bed has wholly melted. the micro-organisms quickly desiccate and turn black. surrounded by a gray corona. The Magyar scientists believe that even a complex sublimation procedure is deficient to explicate the formation and development of the dark dune musca volitanss in infinite and clip. Since their find. fiction author Arthur C. Clarke promoted these formations as deserving of survey

from an astrobiological position.

A transnational European squad suggests that if liquid H2O is present in the spiders’ channels during their one-year defrost rhythm. they might supply a niche where certain microscopic life signifiers could hold retreated and adapted while sheltered from solar radiation. A British squad besides considers the possibility that organic affair. bugs. or even simple workss might co-exist with these inorganic formations. particularly if the mechanism includes liquid H2O and a geothermic energy beginning. However. they besides remark that the bulk of geological constructions may be accounted for without raising any organic “life on Mars” hypothesis.

It has been proposed to develop the Mars Geyser Hopper Lander to analyze the geysers up near. Cosmic radiation In 1965. the Mariner 4 investigation discovered that Mars had no planetary magnetic field that would protect the planet from potentially dangerous cosmic radiation and solar radiation ; observations made in the late ninetiess by the Mars Global Surveyor confirmed this find. Scientists speculate that the deficiency of magnetic shielding helped the solar air current blow off much of Mars’s atmosphere over the class of several billion old ages.

After mapping cosmic radiation degrees at assorted deepnesss on Mars. research workers have concluded that any life within the first several metres of the planet’s surface would be killed by deadly doses of cosmic radiation. In 2007. it was calculated that DNA and RNA harm by cosmic radiation would restrict life on Mars to depths greater than 7. 5 meters below the planet’s surface. Therefore. the best possible locations for detecting life on Mars may be at subsurface environments that have non been studied yet.

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