The case for life on Mars

Schulze‐Makuch, Dirk; Fairén, Alberto González; Dávila, Alfonso F.

doi:10.1017/s1473550408004175

Cited by 39 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 205 publications

(301 reference statements)

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“…Spanish researchers at the Madrid Astrobiology Center, and later American groups, put forward the proposal that the strange spherules on Meridiani Planum could be related to a community of chemolithoautotrophic bacteria still living on Earth in acid environments enriched by iron minerals (Parro et al 2005;Jepsen et al 2007). Recently, other authors have found further evidence of life on Mars by detection of methane and formaldehyde (Onstott et al 2006 ;Schulze-Makuch et al 2008). The biological theory was also supported by Italian researchers (Caiola & Billi 2007); they supposed that some terrestrial organisms, from the cyanobacteria group and similar to the genus Chroococcidiopsis, could be adapted to Martian conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possible organosedimentary structures on Mars

Rizzo¹,

Cantasano²

2009

International Journal of Astrobiology

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: This study, using the Microscopic Imager (MI) of NASA Rover Exploration Mission's (REM) ' Opportunity', aims to explain the origin of laminated sediments lying at Meridiani Planum of Mars, and of the strange spherules, known as blueberries, about which several hypotheses have been formulated. To this purpose, images of the sedimentary textures of layers and fragments captured by REM have been analysed; sediments that NASA has already established as ' pertinent to water presence '. Our study shows that such laminated sediments and the spherules they contain could be organosedimentary structures, probably produced by microorganisms. The laminated structures are characterized by a sequence of a thin pair of layers, which have the features of skeletal/agglutinated laminae and whose basic constituents are made by a partition of septa and vacuoles radially arranged around a central one. The growth of these supposed organosedimentary masses is based on the 'built flexibility' of such a basal element ; it may be a coalescing microfossil formed by progressive film accretion (calcimicrobe), in a variety of geometrical gross forms, such as a repeated couplet sequence of laminae or domal mass and large composite polycentric spherule, both in elevation. The acquired structural and textural data seem to be consistent with the existence of life on Mars and could explain an origin of sediments at Meridiani Planum similar to that of terrestrial stromatolites. The Martian deposits, probably produced by cyanobacterial activity, and the embedded blueberries could represent a recurrent and multiform product of colonies with sheath forms, resembling in shape those of the fossil genus Archaeosphaeroides (stromatolites of Fig Tree, South Africa).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possible organosedimentary structures on Mars

Rizzo¹,

Cantasano²

2009

International Journal of Astrobiology

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“…The electron donor H 2 could easily be generated by photochemical dissociation of water [66] and it has already been determined that there are large amounts of sulfate, especially in the form of MgSO 4 and FeSO 4 in the Martian soils [17,67].…”

Section: Conservation Of Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are We Alone? The Search for Life on Mars and Other Planetary Bodies

Smith¹,

Paszczyński²,

Childers³

2018

Into Space - A Journey of How Humans Adapt and Live in Microgravity

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Extensive research has shown the potential for microorganisms to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Our current understanding of diverse life on Earth implies that, even though the surface of Mars is very inhospitable to life, it is possible that there may be indigenous microorganisms on Mars, especially in the protective subsurface. Ultimately, a better understanding of microbial diversity on Earth is needed to determine the limits of life to help determine the potential for life on Mars and other exoplanets.

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“…Extrapolating our knowledge of terrestrial biotic sources to Mars, many consider methanogens (a type of Archaean microbe) as a probable analog to Martian life forms [22][23][24]. Some methanogens are able to utilize inorganic compounds (H 2 and CO 2 ) as their only source of energy through the following methane-generating redox reaction [4,22]:…”

Section: Potential Originsmentioning

confidence: 99%