French researchers believe simple microbial life may have once existed underground on Mars. They also believe the very presence of those microbes would have been enough to suffocate their life.
The new study, published in Nature Astronomy, says data from the Martian crust shows that when Mars was warmer and wetter, the environment would have been ripe for underground colonies of microbes. The dirt would have protected the microbes from harmful radiation, allowing them to thrive. The researchers specifically focused on whether dihydrogen-based methanogens would have been able to live on Mars, because hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis—the conversion of carbon dioxide to methane using dihydrogen—is thought to have been one of the earliest existing metabolisms for life on Earth.
Yet, the researchers believe this underground world may have caused its own demise: the methane the microorganisms emitted would have been enough to kill them off.
French researchers believe simple microbial life may have once existed underground on Mars. They also believe the very presence of those microbes would have been enough to suffocate their life.
The new study, published in Nature Astronomy, says data from the Martian crust shows that when Mars was warmer and wetter, the environment would have been ripe for underground colonies of microbes. The dirt would have protected the microbes from harmful radiation, allowing them to thrive. The researchers specifically focused on whether dihydrogen-based methanogens would have been able to live on Mars, because hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis—the conversion of carbon dioxide to methane using dihydrogen—is thought to have been one of the earliest existing metabolisms for life on Earth.
Yet, the researchers believe this underground world may have caused its own demise: the methane the microorganisms emitted would have been enough to kill them off. |
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