The surface of Mars is extremely cold, irradiated, and desiccated. But at one time, the planet was much warmer and wetter, with flowing water, lakes, and even an ocean covering most of its northern hemisphere. Because of this, scientists speculate that life may have emerged on Mars billions of years ago and could still be there today. Ever since the Viking 1 and 2 missions landed on the surface in 1976, the search for evidence of past (and maybe present) life has been ongoing.
The surface of Mars is extremely cold, irradiated, and desiccated. But at one time, the planet was much warmer and wetter, with flowing water, lakes, and even an ocean covering most of its northern hemisphere. Because of this, scientists speculate that life may have emerged on Mars billions of years ago and could still be there today. Ever since the Viking 1 and 2 missions landed on the surface in 1976, the search for evidence of past (and maybe present) life has been ongoing.
As missions like Curiosity and Perseverance continue to explore promising regions that were once lakebeds (the Gale and Jezero craters), there are still questions about where to look next. In a recent paper, researchers proposed searching for photosynthetic bacteria embedded in the snow and ice around Mars’ mid-latitudes. Using «radiatively habitable zones» on Earth as a template, they argue that photosynthetically active bacteria could survive within exposed patches of ice.
The research was led by Dr. Aditya Khuller, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center (UW-PSC). He was joined by colleagues from the UW Applied Physics Laboratory, the School of Earth & Space Exploration at Arizona State University (SESE-ASU), and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (InstAAR) at the University of Colorado Boulder (UC Boulder).
