![]() When buried 10 meters down, it might be able to survive for 280 million years. It would only be able to live for a few hours at the surface, but even just 10 centimeters underground, it could potentially thrive for 1.5 million years. The new study found that when this microbe is dried, frozen, and buried under the surface, it would withstand radiation 28,000 times greater than what would kill a human. One in particular, Deinococcus radiodurans (also called “Conan the Bacterium”), proved to be especially robust. Some of these microorganisms proved they could outlive the torture, perhaps for hundreds of millions of years. 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. So the researchers decided to find out whether life could actually survive these conditions. Mars is a cold, dry hellscape, and any organisms that can withstand freezing temperatures of up to -81 degrees Fahrenheit must also contend with the fact that the surface is being pummeled by cosmic and solar radiation. The findings of the study hinge on new experiments that test out how much radiation bacteria might be able to withstand. Both missions would include the ability to drill down into the surface to extract materials. ![]() 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. The new results suggest that our best bet for finding any evidence of current life on Mars would be to advance missions that can drill and extract samples at least two meters below the surface. Those buried microorganisms would be guarded from solar radiation that penetrates through the Martian atmosphere, while still living relatively close to the surface. However, they might not find anything-not because extraterrestrial life on Mars doesn’t exist, but because it has simply found its way underground.Ī new study run by Northwestern University scientists and published in the journal Astrobiology has found that ancient bacteria would have the ability to survive under the surface of Mars for much longer than we previously thought. ![]() There are currently three different Mars rovers (two from NASA and one from China) puttering around the surface of the Red Planet with the express purpose of trying to find signs of past or present alien life.
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