Mars surface is more toxic than expected
The red planet has lately surprised the world with encouraging news. Between discoveries of enormous dissected lakes, groundwater or remains of bacteria activity, it becomes increasingly credible that someday our neighbor can be inhabited. However, the latest discov ery has slowed that enthusiasm a little.
Today Mars is an unfriendly planet for life. Its surface is extremely cold, its atmosphere extremely low and the ultraviolet radiation reaches very high levels. To make matters worse, it turns out that its soil is contaminated with perchlorates.
Perchlorates are salts used, among other things, in rocket fuels. Now, a group of researchers at the University of Edinburgh has discovered that exposed to ultraviolet radiation, these chemicals become twice as harmful to bacteria. And that's not all. In combination with hydrogen peroxide and iron oxide - abundant in the Martian soil - perchlorates become up to 11 times more toxic to microorganisms.
Such information has been published in the journal Nature. This is bad news for supporters of creating a sustainable ecosystem on Mars, since bacteria are the basis of any known life system.
However, there is still hope. The deadly mixture needs ultraviolet radiation to exert its malignant effect. This means that bacteria could have a chance of surviving in the depths of the soil. This hypothesis should be tested by the ExoMars rover, scheduled to launch in 2020.
The ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) mission is a joint project of the European Space Agency and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos. Equipped with a drilling system, its aim is to shed light on the past, present or future of life deep in the Martian soil. Although, given the recent discovery, perhaps light is something that should not be thrown ...